For Better or For Worse
by escritoria
Summary: Britain and Italy, caught up in a magical accident, get their genders swapped. And Britain has no idea how to change them back. With the world meeting coming up and their secret about to be revealed, how will they cope with the change? And what will this mean for the men who secretly love them? USxUK, GerIta, real names used
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey guys! I'm the author of this fic, Escritoria. I hope you like what you read! In advance, I'm going to apologize for any OOCness caused by my no-cursing policy, but I do my best to work around that so I hope you're not disappointed!**

**The main characters of this story are Britain and America—they're my favorites! There's also plenty of GerItaly in here too, so don't worry.**

**Please R&R! I appreciate you taking the time to read my humble little fanfic.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. Or America. Sadly.**

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><p>The circle was drawn. The symmetry, the careful alignment, the loving arrangement of the curves and angles were comforting to Arthur. He loved drawing his circles, carving lines of magic through the planes of reality.<p>

_The other nations,_ he grumbled to himself. _They can't appreciate the fine art of magic. Or my cooking. _Now that was a sore spot. But although he complained about how little stock the other nations put into his wizardly abilities, Arthur was secretly proud to be the only country who could perform magic.

Except for times when it backfired.

Which was too often for England's taste.

Well, it hadn't actually backfired much. But of course, the one time it had, it had to involve that moron Feliciano.

_FelicianA_, Arthur corrected himself. _She's a girl now, drat it all._

The girl who had once been Feliciano was kneeling at the other side of the circle. That idiot. Last time England had been experimenting—which required a very STABLE and UNINTERRUPTED environment, which he had specifically TOLD that moron!—she had gotten in the way, and, well…Once you cast a spell, you couldn't take it back. Even if you cast it on accident.

But she had wanted to play football with Germany at his house! Because now that the war was over she wanted to learn to be friends with him even though he scared the living daylights out of her, and his house was so pretty, with an ocean view on all sides! As if a peninsula wasn't good enough. And apparently, Italy's aim was lousy. And apparently, Arthur had made a mistake in setting up his experiment in a room with a very shatterable window.

Arthur muttered darkly to himself.

"Ve~? Didja say something, Britain?" asked the auburn-haired nuisance.

"No. Now let me concentrate!" he snapped.

Feliciana shrank back, and Arthur saw her hand curl around the emergency white flag she had tucked into her boot. He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. No need to scare her any more than she already was. Arthur was a gentleman, and gentlemen never did things like that to ladies. Even ladies that used to be men.

"Feliciana, you have to be very quiet while I do this," Arthur ordered, staring her down to make sure she was getting it. "Or else it's not going to work. It might not work anyways, but it definitely won't work if you go ballistic in the middle of it. Am I clear?"

The Italian nodded, her hazel eyes wide. "Ve! I will be very still, like a statue! I know about statues. Just the other day I was visiting the art museum in—"

Arthur cut her off before he ended up getting her whole biography. "Good." Thankfully she took the hint.

He drew his (very normally-sized, no matter what stupid Alfred said) eyebrows together in concentration, staring at his circle, and he waited, his eyes closed, until that _something_ inside him clicked into place. He didn't know what it was, but that was how his magic worked—when that puzzle piece was where it should be. When his entire person was in alignment, he guessed. It was only when doing magic that he felt whole, everything in its place.

He began to chant. Feliciana quavered as the circle before her lit up, casting her soft round face with hardness and shadows, but she didn't squeal or jump up, thankfully. Or start waving that awful white flag.

The chant rose in cadence. The words meant something, but Arthur wasn't always sure exactly what. Magic went by instinct as often as rules, and it was very volatile—as stupid Italy had already proven. He had to be careful.

Arthur reached the climax of his spell. The magical circle began to emit glowing sparks that swirled around Feliciana, who shivered and bit her lip at their touch but did not move.

Only a couple of the magical sparks had managed to sink into her skin to begin the transformation when the bane of Arthur's existence made his characteristically bad-timed appearance.

"Yo, Britain!" The door banged open. And Arthur lost his grip on the spell.

All the glowing pale green sparks abandoned Feliciana the second Britain lost the spell. For a moment they milled about her, confused. With no one to direct them, they turned back on their caster in a stream of eerie otherworldly light.

Arthur howled as the sparks all barreled into him at once, shooting through his blood and bones and nerves, rearranging the very fabric of who he was.

Feliciana screamed as Arthur fainted.

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><p><strong>AN: Well, there you have it! I'll upload Chapter 2 very soon. Be sure and leave me a review and tell me what you think! Hasta la pasta!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: This chapter's a short one. I didn't want to ruin the suspense of Arthur's realization by adding the next section in just yet!**

**Disclaimer: Hetalia is still not mine, despite all attempts to make it so. *sigh***

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><p>"Ungh."<p>

Arthur couldn't remember the last time he'd passed out. He was tough for his small size. You could expect no less from a former pirate.

For a minute he was distracted, trying to remember the last time he'd fainted. When he wasn't blind drunk, that is. He'd passed out from that just last week. _Hmm. The last time I fainted…Wasn't that when Gilbert tried to make a pass at me so I punched him? And then Gilbird tried to peck my brains out?_

Arthur tried to open his eyes, but it didn't work. Something was…off. He felt…wrong.

Finally he managed to get his eyes to open. They were staring into bespectacled blue and horrified hazel.

"Britain?" Feliciana sounded even more nervous than she usually did around him.

Alfred's eyes were hard to read. Suddenly they filled with tears.

"America?" Britain asked, startled. America hadn't cried since…ever.

Suddenly Alfred exploded into laughter. Hugging his stomach, he hunched over in spasms of laughter until he was gasping for air and tears were streaming down his face.

"What? What's going on?" Arthur tried to sit up. Feliciana's hand was at his back, helping him.

"You gotta be careful… It's hard to get used to at first, but it's going to be a-okay! I promise, ve~!"

"What on earth are you blathering about?" Arthur got halfway up and froze.

He was so…small. His clothes were suddenly huge on him. The black robe he wore for spellcasting hung in heavy dark folds around a body he didn't recognize.

"How…" Britain held one of his hands up. It was little, like the rest of him, and not as square or hard as he remembered.

A terrible suspicion was forming in the back of his mind. _No_… Anything but this!

Hardly breathing, Arthur looked down.

Golden hair spilled down his shoulders, glossy and curly like a princess'. And under that hair…

_Breasts_. He had _breasts_.

"Dude, Britain, you're a _chick_!"

Arthur's scream was so high-pitched that it drowned out Alfred's laughter.

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><p><strong>AN: I love Alfred. xD<strong>

**Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: So before we got too deep into the story, I wanted to make a confession: I suck at writing Italy. DX There, I confessed. I'm a horrible Italy, but I have a friend who is practically Italy's incarnation-so any good parts involving Italy were probably her doing, and all the bad parts were probably mine. Italy's not my favorite character-I just like her and Germany together. Their coupleness is the thing that makes me like them. I prefer to write my favorite characters, like America and Britain. So there likely won't be a Feli POV chapter, but there will be Ludwig's- and Alfred's-POV coming up soon.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia :'(**

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><p>"Vee~… Hold still, Britain!" Feliciana whined.<p>

Arthur wanted to die. If some species of alien were to invade the world and enslave all mankind, he would be the first to sign up to be brainwashed. Anything had to be better than sitting here letting Feliciana _brush his hair_.

It was the morning after…the accident. Feliciana had already been staying at his house for a while, ever since the FIRST accident. "I don't want Germany and Japan to see me like this!" she'd wailed upon waking up to a female body. So for the past few nights, Feli had been staying with him, although Ludwig had sounded like he was seriously considering storming Arthur's house when he gave him the whole "sleepover-at-Britain's" story. They probably had a few days at most before everyone discovered their dark secret. Knowing Ludwig, it could be any minute that he decided to call and check on Feliciana. And then they'd either have to answer the phone, make America answer, or just let it ring. None of those scenarios had happy endings. They all involved the whole world finding out by lunchtime.

Arthur stubbornly didn't look in the mirror in front of him. It was a terrifying sight.

Not because he looked bad. Because he looked…good.

_NO! I do NOT look good as a girl!_

But he had to admit, he sort of did. Since he'd been short as a man, he was a petite girl (he cringed at the feminine word), with falls of flaxen curls. His beloved eyebrows were thinner now, arching almost…_gracefully_ over eyes as green as a forest pool. Soft pink lips pouted angrily at that. And worst of all…

He had curves. _Nice_ curves. The kind of curves Francis and his little posse would drool over. The day that France found out about this whole girl thing was the day Arthur would commit suicide.

The whole thing made Arthur want to vomit.

_Everything_ was awkward now. Looking in a mirror was bad enough. Using the restroom and changing clothes were nightmares.

Not to mention that idiot Alfred. No. Best not to think about that. Whenever he did he found himself compulsively trying to strangle whatever happened to be around at the moment.

"Britain, I never noticed, but your hair is really pretty!" commented Feliciana, happily tugging the brush through his gentle curls.

Arthur's eyebrow twitched. "Shut up."

Feli pouted. "What? You don't want to be pretty?"

"I want to be a MAN, you dolt!" Arthur forced himself to calm down when he saw the wounded look on Feliciana's face. She was just trying to help. "Sorry, Italy. Th-thank you." Having to force out the apology made his anger boil even hotter.

Her face brightened even though it was obvious that the apology was forced. "It really is so pretty! It's all shiny, ve~!"

Arthur furiously blocked out her voice as she went on rambling about his hair. But then Alfred burst in without knocking and his voice just _refused_ to be ignored.

"Hey guys I was just thinking—"

"YOU MORON!" Arthur exploded, glaring lasers at the American, secretly happy to have a good way to vent his anger. "What if one of us was changing or something?"

Unfortunately, Britain's used-to-be-imposing glare and yelling had the wrong effect. Alfred doubled over, heaving with laughter. "Dude! You sound just like you used to but your voice is so high it's ridiculous!"

That was just the last straw. With a howl of rage, Arthur leaped from his chair at Alfred, punching him with all the strength his tiny body could muster. Alfred was taken off guard for a minute, so Arthur managed to land a good punch or two to his face and chest, but Alfred caught Arthur's right wrist as he went for a third punch, and his left when he swung again. Yelling at the top of his lungs, Arthur struggled against America, kicking and wrenching his arms, but it was no use. In twenty seconds Alfred had Arthur pinned to the floor under him, totally immobilized. His glasses weren't even crooked.

Arthur howled with frustration and humiliation. Alfred had pinned him with no effort—he hadn't even needed to throw a punch. Worse, he'd _refused_! He'd been intentionally refraining from punching Arthur because he was a girl now! Just for old times' sake, he bellowed a stream of very unladylike curses. "If you don't get off me this minute I'll rip your—"

America grinned, but not mockingly. "Chill, dude—I mean _dudette_."

Another bout of writhing and cursing exploded from Britain. The profanity sounded rather strange coming from such a petite, angelic-looking woman.

"So speaking of which," America said, ignoring Arthur's struggles like they were nothing, "I was just thinking. We need to give Arthur a girl name now!"

"WHAT?" screeched Arthur from the floor.

"Yeah! I mean, _Arthur_? Feliciano's pretty easy to girl-ify, but I don't know any girl names that sound like Arthur."

"Yeah, you're right!" cried Feliciana. "What do you want to be called, Britain?"

"_ARTHUR_! I WANT TO BE CALLED _ARTHUR_! THAT'S MY _NAME_!"

"Sorry, dudette, no can do," Alfred said, grinning evilly. "I was thinking Brittany. You know, like _Britain_-y?"

"Ooh!" Feliciana clapped her hands. "I like it, ve~!"

"_I_ DON'T LIKE IT! DON'T I GET A SAY IN THIS?"

"Sure, you do, buddy. Anything but Arthur." Alfred looked expectantly down at the Brit.

To be honest, Arthur hadn't been prepared for Alfred to agree to let him name himself, and now he couldn't come up with a single name he'd actually like to be called. After a long moment of silence, he sighed. "I guess Brittany's as good a name as any, but it's so girly… Can you just call me Britt?" He…_she'd_ (he had to admit his girl-ness as he claimed the new name) been called that before anyway, and it should appease Alfred enough to get him off of her.

For the first time Ar…Britt realized how Alfred was pinning her down. He was holding her wrists to the floor about level with her head and he was straddling her hips. He was uncomfortably close, and his eyes were so unbelievably blue behind those glasses…

Ar…Britt flushed crimson. If they'd both been guys, nobody but the Bad-Touch Trio would have commented. But now…

A second after Ar-Britt started blushing, Alfred did too, realizing the reason impressively quickly considering the size of his miniscule brain. He was off of her in a moment and backing into the corner by the door, scratching the back of his head and laughing awkwardly.

"Now that I think about it that wasn't very heroic of me, huh? Pinning a girl and all."

"Git," mumbled Ar-Britt.

Feli helped Ar-Britt to her feet. "That wasn't nice, Britt! You should apologize. Alfred just wants to help, ve~!"

"When pigs fly," snorted the Englishwoman.

Feli's face fell. "That's not so nice either…"

Positivity was so _obnoxious_. Ar-Britt chased Alfred and Feliciana out of her room and locked the door, shutting out the world. But unfortunately, her own mind was just as bad. Just as full of accusations and uncertainty and that truth that just refused to be ignored, just like that idiot American.

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><p><strong>I was so proud of Britt's new name xD Please review if you like it too, or even if you don't! Reviews make Alfred and I very happy.<strong>

**Alfred: DUDE! Reveiw! If you do I'll take all you guys to McDonalds with me!**

**Escritoria: Alfred. For serious. No one likes that crap. And I'm an American!**

**Alfred: :O This is like straight-up treachery!**

**Escritoria: Okay, fine. I hate it but I'll go with you. -.- *secretly fangirl squealing inside at the prospect of going anywhere with Alfred***

**Until next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: This chapter's pretty long! But this one's through Ludwig's POV and I wanted to get that all in one chapter. Just as a warning-I use people's accents. If you can't figure out what I'm trying to say, just say it aloud and it should hopefully make sense.**

**So in honor of Christmas, my favorite of festivities, I'm going to write a two-character Hetalia Christmas oneshot! But I wanted you, my wonderful readers whom I love very much, to help me pick what I'm going to write about. Here are the topics I could do:**

**France x Canada (either father/son or as a pairing)**

**Switzerland x Lichtenstein (brother/sister; I refuse to mess up their relationship with romance!)**

**Austria x Hungary (pairing)**

**Or if you want to suggest one, please go ahead! I might end up doing more than one, so you never know-I might pick yours! Please vote and leave a review while you're at it!**

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><p>Ludwig was a very productive country. It was rare when he procrastinated. It was even rarer when he performed the ultimate act of procrastination—sitting there with work in front of him but looking right through it, swallowed up in his thoughts.<p>

_Feliciano is scared to death of Britain. Vhy vould he vant to stay at his house? It's been four days. Much too long. Zat Italian has ze attention span of a two-year-old. Somezing is up. But vhat?_

The German glanced at his phone. The moment he'd gotten home from Arthur's house after the Brit had given him that shady story about Italy sleeping over at his house, he'd looked up his phone number. Just in case. Not that he didn't trust Arthur… Okay, he didn't trust Arthur. Ludwig's defeat in World War II was too fresh in his mind for him to completely forgive an Ally. Feli might be able to, but Ludwig just wasn't as forgiving as that airheaded Italian.

Ludwig debated for a moment before reaching for the phone. It rang several times before someone picked up.

A soft voice said, "Hai."

"Kiku? It's me, Ludvig. Have you heard from Feliciano recently?"

"No, I haven't. It's been awfurry quiet around here without him. Didn't you say that he was staying at Arthur-san's house? Is he not back yet?"

"No, he's not, and I'm getting vorried. Never mind, if you haven't heard from him zen I'll let you go."

"Why did you not just cahr Britain-san?"

"I don't know…I don't vant to pry into Feli's business. I mean, it's ze first time he's ever done something even remotely brave since I've known him. He's scared to death of Arthur."

"Hai, I thought that it was very strange too… Perhaps you should call Lovino-san?"

"Yes, zat's a good idea. Zank you." Ludwig hung up. He wasn't sure why he'd thought Feli might contact Japan before him. But it was just too strange. Italy couldn't go three hours without calling Ludwig to rescue him from something, whether it was Ivan bullying him or a spider on the wall.

Lovino picked up on the very last ring. "What do you want, you stupid potato?" asked the prickly Italian without bothering with a greeting.

"Hello, Lovino. I vas vondering if Feli has called you in ze past few days?"

"No! And if you see him tell that jerk North never to show his face around here again! He ditched me so I had to go to the beach alone with Toni! Do you know how horrible that was? Him and his stupid turtles!" Lovino went off on a rant interspersed with a lot of choice curses.

"Okay zen!" Germany shouted over Lovino, holding the phone away from his ear to preserve his hearing. "I vill hang up now." He slammed the phone down on the cradle before the Italian started raging again.

"I guess I'm going to have to call Arthur…" Ludwig grumbled. Reluctantly, he punched in the number and held the phone to his ear.

It rang. And rang. And rang. Finally just when he thought no one would pick up, he heard someone answer.

"Si?" Somebody was pushing and saying what sounded like an order in a sharp, low voice on the other end of the line.

"…Feliciano?" Ludwig asked tentatively. The voice sounded like his, but…different. It was too high. Must have been the phone. "Hi zere. I was just calling to check on you. Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, ve~! Having lotsa fun at Britt's house!" His light tone sounded forced.

Ludwig's heavy brows pulled together in confusion. "Britt?"

"Oh… I mean Britain! That's just what I call him now, cuz we're pretty much _fratellos_ by now!" Italy laughed.

"Italy, vhat's vrong? I can tell vhen you're forcing yourself to laugh." Ludwig scowled darkly. "Is zat jerk doing anyzing to you?"

"No no no!" Feli's voice was edging higher in panic. "It's nothing, Germany!"

"Do you vant me to come get you?" Ludwig asked. If he'd been superstitious he would have been crossing his fingers for a yes. But he was much too sophisticated for that. He had to make do with holding his breath, silently hoping he'd agree.

"No!" Feli practically shouted, his voice climbing even higher somehow. "I mean, don't worry about it, Ludwig! I'm fine. You don't have to come."

"Italy…"

Someone barked an order in the background. "Oh, I gotta go Ludwig! Bye~!" And then Feli slammed the phone down and cut off his protests, just like Ludwig had cut off Lovino.

Germany stared at the phone in his hand for a minute. All that noise in the background… What if that British sadist was doing something to Feliciano? He had sounded pretty frightened. Although that wasn't much of an indicator of any foul play. Feli was scared of everything.

Ludwig glanced down at all the work he'd neglected to do in worrying about Feli. His boss would be angry if it went undone.

In one smooth motion he stood, grabbed his coat from the hanger by his desk, and was out the door.

o~O~o

_I don't know vhy I'm doing zis. By now zat ditz should at least know how to avoid being kidnapped_, Ludwig grumbled to himself. _Or I've vasted my life trying to toughen him up_.

Taking a deep breath, feeling apprehensive, Ludwig knocked with one black-gloved hand on the door of Arthur's house.

For a minute he waited. Nobody answered, but he heard rustling and hurriedly stifled noises coming from inside. _Are zey avoiding me?_ He knocked again. Still no response, even though there was no possible way they could have not heard his knock. Although he tried to be patient, Ludwig lost his temper quickly.

Banging on the door, he shouted in his best Furer voice, "Open up you pompous Brit! I know you're in zere and I vant to see Italy!"

Whispers drifted through the heavy oaken door. Germany stopped pounding at the door, trying to hear what was being said.

Suddenly the door was thrown wide. But it wasn't Arthur or Feliciano—it was Alfred.

"Yo, Germany! What's happening?" the blonde American shouted with a wide grin.

"Alfred? Vhat are you doing here?" Ludwig asked, frowning.

"Oh, you know. Visiting my Ally homie. What's wrong with that?"

The American slang made Germany cringe internally. What a sorry, mangled thing Americans had made of the English language. "I'm here to see Italy. Is he around?"

For some reason, that made Alfred laugh so hard he had to lean against the door to avoid falling over. "You're not gonna believe this, but… Ah, screw it! I'm not supposed to show you, but I will anyway! It's so fun to see Britt get mad. Follow me!" His eyes danced with mischief behind his half-rimmed glasses as he beckoned his fellow country inside.

_Britt again?_ Germany wondered, stepping hesitantly into Arthur's house as Alfred started down the long hallway. The entire house looked like a Baroque-era castle, with grand, sweeping staircases and drafty halls, ancient stone foundations and all the pomp and luxury that could be afforded. Suits of armor were posted at regular intervals down the hallway, staring at the pair of men as they strode past, and each room was furnished uniquely, no two alike.

Alfred hummed idly as he led the way. "Hmm, what library was it again? I'm always getting lost in here. I used to know my way around, but I forgot it somewhere in the last two centuries. I have no idea why Britt wants to live in such a gloomy old cave!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes. Of course all the refinement and culture of Arthur's home was totally lost on Alfred, even though he'd grown up there.

"Here it is!" shouted Alfred from down the hallway, waving Ludwig over. Somewhere along the line, the German had fallen behind. "C'mon! What, don't tell me you actually wanna stop and look at all these dusty old piles of junk?"

"I'm coming," Ludwig snapped. Lengthening his stride, he caught up quickly to his guide.

"Okay, try not to freak out, okay? They'll be pissed enough as it is," Alfred warned. Then he threw open the door dramatically, gesturing grandly to what was inside. "TA-DA!"

The room was a dimly lit library with a cold stone floor, the walls lined with shelves full of dusty, old-looking tomes. In the center of the floor was one of Britain's magical circles. A mostly melted stub of candle was placed at each of the points of an eight-pointed star drawn inside the circle, and judging from the pools of melted and re-hardened wax under each candle, they'd been burning for quite a while. Kneeling in the circle with a book open between them were two girls—one blonde and one auburn-haired.

When they heard the door open, the two girls looked up. At the sight of Ludwig, the redhead blanched and the blonde's face turned crimson in fury.

"YOU BLOODY ROTTEN EXCUSE FOR A COUNTRY!" shouted the blonde girl in a thick British accent. Ludwig was taken aback by the explosion of noise from such a small girl. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO LET HIM IN HERE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!"

"Well yeah, but this just seemed like more fun!" Alfred laughed, shutting the door behind him and winking at the blonde.

The girl looked livid enough to bite Alfred in half. She leaped to her feet, raising her small fists threateningly. "YOU—YOU—"

"Please don't fight," whimpered the redhead, her voice thick with the tones of Italy. Despondently she waved a little white flag she'd produced from Ludwig-wasn't-sure-he-wanted-to-know-where, as if the sight of it would inspire peace among her bickering friends. "I don't like it! Not at all!"

A shock ran through Ludwig. That voice! It couldn't be!

He looked closer at the two girls. The blonde had the same glass-bottle-green eyes as Arthur, and her eyebrows seemed a little thick for a girls'. The redhead had the heavy-lidded hazel eyes he knew so well, and a single copper curl sprung defiantly from the side of her head. Unmistakable. His stomach dropped into his combat boots.

"_Italy_?"

The copper-haired girl turned to him, flushing pink and averting her huge hazel eyes. "C-ciao, Ludwig."

Instantly Germany was drowning in memories of a time he'd never told Italy about. A time when he'd been known by another name, when he'd been in love with another young country. He'd kissed her and gone off to war, and she'd thought him dead. Only, _she_ had been a _he_, and once Ludwig had discovered it he'd been too embarrassed to tell Feliciano that he was the same naïve little country who'd asked her to remake the Roman Empire with him.

But now that _he_ was a _she_ once more. And Ludwig's emotions had never been so confused.

"Feli…what happened to you?" Ludwig gasped, swaying a little on his feet in shock.

"Well… You remember when we were playing football, right?" The German nodded mutely. For some reason it was hard for him to tear his eyes away from Feli. She was… so soft and _feminine_. She looked like a child, an innocent little child who needed to be protected. She was still slender, but she had a subtle curviness that made it unmistakable that her gender had been changed somehow. Her eyes were so much bigger now, and she had them open more often, revealing the captivating hazel that had been hidden when she was a man. Her hair fell in sprays of molten copper past her shoulders, curling slightly inwards at the ends. Aside from those eyes, her face was mostly the same, but her skin was smoother and glowing, and her lips had become fuller and pinker. She was… _Beautiful_. She was just like the young Italy he remembered from Austria's house—just as sweet and innocent and irresistibly cute, but a grown woman now. And even all these centuries later, the sight of her tied his insides into knots.

And she didn't know about their past, because he'd never told her.

"Ludwig?" Feli asked, cocking her head and drawing his name out questioningly. "Did you hear me?"

"Um, vhat?" Ludwig shook himself, half embarrassed and half angry with himself for thinking such foolish things. Beautiful? Who was he kidding? Feliciano—a was his friend. Nothing more. They'd both been little boys the first and final time they kissed anyway. "No, I'm sorry. I vasn't paying attention."

"It's okay! I kicked the ball into one of Britt's windows, and she was experimenting with her magic stuff, and the spell accidently hit me! So now I'm a girl, ve~!"

Ludwig glanced at Britain. "Zen how are you a girl? Vhen you came to tell me that Italy vould be staying vith you, you vere still a man."

"It was that bumbling oaf over there," Arthur…Britt, he supposed, replied darkly. "He interrupted me when I was trying to revert Feliciana back to normal and the spell backfired on me."

"So vhy in ze name of all zings holy have you not changed yourselves back yet?" Ludwig asked incredulously. "Have you _liked_ being a voman zese past few days?"

"Actually it's not so bad!" Feli began brightly, but Britt overrode her.

"It's horrid! But unfortunately…I can't change us back," she admitted bitterly, sounding like she was choking on the words.

Ludwig stared. He'd never heard Britain admit to not being able to do something, especially when it came to magic and cooking. "Vhat? Vhy not?"

The blonde used-to-be-man heaved a sigh. "Magic is very specific to each person. Everyone's different when it comes to the dark arts. The way I do it is totally different from the way, say, you would, or Feliciana."

"Ve~? I can do magic?" Feli gasped, her hazel eyes popping wide at this unexpected revelation.

"No, of course not! Now be quiet," Britt snapped.

Before he knew what he was doing, Ludwig found himself standing over Britt. He'd always been taller than Arthur, but he towered over the girl he'd become. "Don't talk to him—her like zat ever again!" he growled. "He—she's not too bright, but h—she's your fellow country and h—she deserves your respect!"

Britt looked surprised by his rage. It was a little surprising to Ludwig himself. "Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a twist," she grumbled. "I won't tell her to shut up anymore. Okay?"

Ludwig gave her one last icy blue glare. "Okay."

"Whoa, this is intense!" laughed Alfred. "It's like a TV show!"

Britt and Ludwig gave the American twin glares. "Stay out of zis!" Ludwig ordered, reddening a little. "Vhat are you even doing here anyvay? It's not like zis is your problem!"

"What kind of hero would I be if I left two damsels in distress in this creepy cave alone?" Alfred asked, affronted. "Besides, it's not _your_ problem either, but I don't think you'll be leaving anytime soon."

_Darn zat American_, Ludwig cursed internally. He hated it when Alfred was accidentally perceptive. For an idiot, he was pretty smart. Unlike Feliciano—a, who was just an idiot.

"Like I was _saying_," Britt drawled to draw the attention back to the previous conversation, "I can't change us back because my magic is restricted now. Since it's specific to each person, now that I've become a different person for all intents and purposes," her lips curled ruefully at that "magic doesn't work the same way for me anymore. I have to relearn it before I can attempt a high-level spell like gender transmutation."

Ludwig took a second to digest this. Feli was going to be a girl for a while. Who knew how long? It could take a century before Britt regained enough of her magic to change them back.

Two warm hands cupped one of Germany's. He looked down to see Feli staring up at him worriedly. "You'll still be my friend, won't you, Ludwig?" she asked, her lower lip pouting slightly. "Just cuz I'm a girl now, it won't change anything, I promise! I'll still do my best to be a good ally, and do my training and everything! Ve~!"

_It von't change anything, huh?_ The hand that she held felt like it was lighter than the rest of him. "Ja, Feliciana, of course I vill still be your friend."

A grin stretched her lips. "Ve~! Grazie!"

Ludwig had to look away from her face, glowing with joy at such a stupid little promise.

He had a feeling that her being a girl would change things very, very much.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong>

**Me: They should review, right Ludwig? And vote too!**

**Ludwig: *eye twitch* Just vote so zis girl vill leave me alone.**

**Me: YOU HEARD THE MAN! VOTE VOTE VOTE!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I want to use this Author's Note to give a shoutout to my favorite reader, and that would be Angel the Neko! She always reveiws, and she was the ONLY ONE who actually voted for my Christmas oneshot *glares accusingly at everyone else*. That will be dedicated to you, Angel the Neko. Thank you so much for being such an amazing reader! It makes me smile every time I get a reveiw from you.**

**Guys, really, reveiws make my day! Even if you only have flames for me, I want to hear them! I'm happy that people are reading this, but it makes me nervous not knowing what they think about it!**

**Disclaimer: No Hetalia for me. *sigh***

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><p>The circle glowed, highlighting Britt's face with its light. Her cheekbones cast eerie shadows across her forehead, and her green eyes were illuminated disconcertingly by the gleam.<p>

Inside her mind, Britt scrambled desperately for the words of the spell, leaving no stone unturned in her centuries-old consciousness. But the words she would have used as a man no longer sounded correct. Now they sounded disjointed, lacking the fluidity necessary to perform the spell. Half-principle, half-practice—that was magic. And now Britt lacked the practice that it had taken her almost a millennium to build up.

_A curse on all of them!_ Britt growled in frustration and let the circle sputter out.

Although it had been a week since Ludwig showed up and discovered the secret, he still hadn't left. Oh, he went out now and then to do his work for his boss (his boss was a lot more demanding of him than most countries') and make contact with Gilbert, Kiku, and his other allies, but he was always back by sunset. The imposing country hovered over Feli like a Nazi mother hen, as if she would shatter into a million pieces at any moment.

_What's he so protective of her for, anyway?_ Britt wondered as she began rubbing out the lines of her circle. She had to try something different. None of the circles she'd tried yet made that thing click within her. Just like the spells themselves, magic circles were as specific to the person as a fingerprint. It had taken her months to develop her last one. But then again, last time she hadn't been working around the clock to create one. _It's not like anything would happen to her here. He's insulting my hospitality!_

To add insult to injury, Feliciana had taken over Britt's kitchen about a day after Ludwig had arrived and then remained without even bothering to ask, as if she was afraid of Britt feeding Ludwig her food. Not that Britt really cared at this point. Her every waking moment had been spent crouched over circle after unsuccessful circle for the past few days anyway—she didn't have time to play hostess.

So the others had been pretty much left to their own devices. They visited her in her little magic library—Alfred more so than the others; he seemed to enjoy tormenting her with his omnipresent ha-ha-you're-a-girl-now smirk—but she hardly noticed them.

Speak of the devil. The door opened, and Alfred stepped inside, waving a handful of letters he'd pulled from a pocket of his ridiculous bomber jacket.

"Hey, Britt! Mail came in." He dropped the pile on the floor in front of her, where the useless circle had been a minute before.

Britt sighed and gathered up the letters, flipping through them to see who they were from.

Bill…Bill…Crap. Her payment to Saudi Arabia was due. Well, that was an issue for her boss to deal with.

The second-to-last letter made her pause. She plucked it out and broke the seal on the envelope with her overly long thumbnail. Feli wouldn't let her cut them, or bite them off, claiming that long nails were "pretty" and "girly."

"No." Britt stared at the letter. "The world meeting? Next week? You must be joking."

"No joke, Britt," Alfred said, showing her his own letter. "I got one too."

She glared at him. "What are you still doing in here anyway?"

"Sheesh. Someone's grumpy. I was just being nice and getting your mail for you. I think being a girl has made you even more touchy, if that's even possible."

"Git," she growled, getting to her feet slowly.

It had been too long since she stood—her legs weren't used to it. She'd worked all through the day yesterday and slept there on the floor of the library, then woken up and started working again. Her legs wouldn't support her, and they buckled underneath her weight.

She cried out, expecting to hit the floor, but instead a pair of unexpectedly strong arms caught her. Her eyes flew wide as Alfred settled her back on the floor, kneeling at her side.

"Whoa! That coulda been bad." He laughed easily, still holding her shoulders to make sure she didn't fall again. "Lucky for you, you've got a hero here watching out for you!"

"I don't need any of your stupid heroics," Britt spat, shoving his arms away from her. "I can take care of myself! Who do you think raised you, you slimy little ingrate!"

"I _know_ you raised me," Alfred said with an eye-roll. "But that doesn't mean I can't help you out, does it? Just because you're older than me doesn't mean you have to be the strong one. Especially now."

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm weak!" she shot back.

"I never said that."

"Yes you did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did _not_!"

"Did _too_!"

"Vhy are you two sitting zere arguing like little children?" demanded Ludwig angrily from the doorway. He was holding a letter identical to Britt and Alfred's. Feli was close by his side, her own letter dangling from her small fist.

Britt angrily shook her hair over her face to hide her blush. Unfortunately being a girl also came with easy blushes and more confusing emotions. And an unhealthy attraction to cute things that was slightly horrifying.

Alfred stood, catching Britt's hand without bothering to see if she wanted his help and tugging her up with him. With a steadying hand on her waist, he faced Ludwig. "You're right, German dude. We gotta come up with a game plan for the world meeting!"

Britt would have shoved him away, but frankly she wasn't sure that her legs would support her if she did. Without her permission, her fingers closed around Alfred's hand to steady herself on her feet.

Luckily he didn't seem to notice, and Ludwig and Feli didn't comment if they did. "Ve~," Feli agreed, tossing her hair over her shoulder. She'd certainly taken to her gender change a lot more easily than Britt had. Already she was wearing dresses and keeping her hair neat and tidy, making sure her face was washed and her fingernails in perfect condition. Britt, on the other hand, wore her old man's clothes, her overlarge pants secured with a belt that bunched the waistline up around her hips and the legs rolled up four times. The arms of her shirt were rolled up too to free her hands. Her hair was disarrayed and her face smudged from her night on the floor of the library, and the fingernails Feli refused to let her cut or gnaw on were broken and dusted with chalk from all the circles she'd drawn. "We gotta decide what we're gonna do!" She looked up at Germany with concern. "Ve~…Do you think Kiku and Lovi will still like me?"

"I zink Kiku vill, but I'm not so sure about your _bruder_," Ludwig admitted.

"Oh…" Feli's face fell, her hazel eyes dropping and her lower lip pouting. She was really an adorable girl. If Britt had still been a man, she would have…

See, there was _another_ awkward thing about accidental gender swaps. Britt focused on the pressure of Alfred's strong, square hand in hers to distract herself from that line of thought.

But if even Britt was thinking that, how were they going to survive the world meeting without getting attacked by Francis or Gilbert? Lovino might be able to hold off Antonio, but the others… Britt shuddered just thinking about it. If Francis got his slimy hands on her, she would pour bleach on her brain. After she violently murdered him.

"Don't sweat it, Feli!" Alfred shouted. Britt flinched; he was right by her ear. In fact, he was so close to her that it was making her skin crawl, but she still didn't think her legs would be able to support her if she stepped away. "You've got us to be your friends! Who needs that crabby tomato-sucker anyway?"

"Well he did try to choke me once…" Feli mused. "Okay! You guys can be my friends now, ve~!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Vhy did I have to be forced into cooperation with zese Allies morons?" he grumbled under his breath.

Shooting a crystal-blue glare at Ludwig, Alfred casually pulled a hand grenade out of his pocket. "Hey Feli, wanna play with this?" The American wiggled the weapon in front of Feli's eyes, which widened with recognition and excitement. Ludwig and Britt paled with horror.

"Ve~, I remember these! You pull the pin and it explodes, right, Germany?" She made a grab for it.

Luckily, Alfred had never had any intention of actually giving Feli the grenade. He snatched it back just in time and stuck his tongue out at Ludwig. "Got any more smart cracks to make about the Allies? Cuz I have a whole box of these hidden somewhere, and I'm sure Feli would just love to play with them!"

Ludwig glared icy daggers at Alfred and patted Feli, who was pouting because Alfred hadn't let her have the grenade, on the head in an awkward attempt to comfort her.

"Why do you have a box of grenades in my house?" demanded Britt. "I could've sworn I was a better parent than that."

"You gotta have some grenades laying around just in case! I thought everyone knew that!" Alfred stuck the grenade back in his pocket before Britt could grab it from him.

"Fine, blow a giant hole in your side. See if I care," Britt grumbled, shoving her hair back from her face irritably. "Just try not to get your guts all over my floor."

"Nah, heroes don't get blown up, so no worries!"

"Did it ever occur to you that you _aren't_ indestructible?" Britt asked, giving him her best glare.

Unfortunately, her glares still just made Alfred laugh. "But heroes are indestructible! And that's me—I'm the hero, in case you forgot!"

"How could I?" she growled. "You call yourself that every two seconds!"

"Well if I wasn't holding onto you, you wouldn't be able to stand," he pointed out. "So _ha_! That's heroic!"

Again, Britt wished desperately that she was strong enough to stand on her own. "That's common courtesy! And I _know_ I taught you that, although you seem to have forgotten in the past few centuries!"

"YOU'RE ARGUING LIKE CHILDREN AGAIN!" Ludwig roared. "VHAT IS VRONG VITH YOU TWO?" Feli sniffled and hid behind her bigger, scarier ally, waving her white flag at the arguing pair to ward off their fury.

Britt snapped right back. "I wouldn't be arguing with him if he had more IQ points than a rabbit!"

"Dude! Not cool! I'm totally smarter than a rabbit. Besides, it doesn't count because the only rabbits you hang out with are imaginary flying ones."

"She's not imaginary!" Suddenly Britt remembered—she hadn't seen any of her friends since she'd turned into a girl! What would they think of her? Suddenly she had a bigger problem than getting sexually preyed on by Francis at the world meeting.

"Britt, you gotta admit they're not real. Nobody else can see them but you."

"No one can see your "twin" either!"

"Dude! How can you forget Matthew? Do you even know how many playdates you used to take me to at Francis' house? And I was in here telling you about him just last night!"

"I was blocking you out! Honestly, America, I have better things to do than listen to you babble about an imaginary brother or whatever else goes on in that puny brain of yours!"

Now Alfred was seriously annoyed. The skin between his blue eyes took on a hint of a frown. "Like what? Sit there on the floor all day until your fingers fall off drawing circles that don't work? We're trying to help you!"

"No one can help me! Unless you develop magical abilities within the next week then I don't see how you can possibly help me!"

Alfred was starting to glare. "I've been _trying_! Jeez! Don't you know it goes against my entire hero code to _not_ help people when they need me?"

"Who needs you?"

"You want me to let go of you?" Alfred arched an eyebrow.

That didn't really require an answer. Britt's hand clamped onto his, making it impossible for him to let go. "What have you been doing to help me? Be obnoxious?"

"I've been trying to get your mind off this whole chick thing!"

"You laugh every time you see me!"

"Well sorry! I'm not used to you looking so cute!"

Britt's bottle-green eyes widened in shock. A furious blush suffused her grubby cheeks. "W-what?"

Alfred's eyes widened too. Obviously the words had come out on their own accord. _That moron, speaking the first thing on his mind as always. _He masked it quickly, resuming his usual idiotic expression, but he was now holding Britt at arm's length like she might start trying to claw his face off. "Uh, I was wondering if you had any McDonald's around here? I mean, you're cooking's awesome, Feli, but I need a burger!"

Nobody was buying it. Britt was still staring at him, poleaxed, and Feli and Ludwig both looked like they'd just witnessed a train wreck.

Blue eyes darted nervously back and forth, trying to find somebody who would at least play along. No such luck. "Ah… Um, I gotta go." Alfred shoved Britt at Ludwig, who caught her unceremoniously as she fell towards him. Alfred walked stiff-backed out the door without looking at anyone and shut it loudly behind him.

"Did…did he just call me cute?" Britt straightened her legs and stood carefully with Ludwig's help. Her mind was blank with shock. _Cute_? Why would _he_ of all people think she was cute? He'd made it perfectly clear in 1776—he didn't want to be her little boy anymore. So why would he say something like that?

"Mien gott," Ludwig breathed. "Feli, take Britt," he ordered.

"Ve~," Feliciana agreed weakly, taking Britt's hand. Ludwig took off down the hall after Alfred when he saw that they were okay on their own.

"You're a mess, Britt!" Feli scolded, switching topics after a moment of awkwardness. "Let's go get you all cleaned up and then we'll go make dinner, okay?"

Britt stumbled down the hall where Feli led. A towel was pushed into her hands and she was led into the bathroom to get cleaned up. She took a bath in a daze, not even noticing how much of a pain it was to shampoo all that hair.

All she could see was the look in Alfred's unbelievably blue eyes when he'd called her cute, and all she could do was wonder why that look made her stomach come alive with butterflies.

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><p><strong>AN: Well, there you have it! Adorableness from your hero!<strong>

**Alfred: *rolling eyes* She's not THAT cute.**

**Me: WE ALL HEARD YOU ADMIT IT SO DON'T CRUSH OUR FANGIRL DREAMS!**

**Alfred: Dude. You know that's creepy, right?**

**Me: ... WELL WHO CARES?**

**REVEIW!**

**PS: The next chapter, as well as my AustriaxHungary Christmas oneshot, will all be posted on Christmas day (hopefully)! If I'm late on the next chapter of this story, it's because I'm busy with family, but I will definitely post my Christmas oneshot that day. Ciao!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I hope everybody's holiday is just lovely so far!**

**So this chapter is Alfred's POV. So I was on cloud nine writing it, of course! I love America so much. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!**

**My Christmas oneshot is up too, so please check it out. And guys, I'm so proud of you! There was a major jump in reveiws last chapter, so keep up the good work! It made my Christmas week :D**

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><p>"Alfred! Vait up!"<p>

The American didn't slow. _Why did I say that? What was I thinking? That was so unheroic. Heroes are supposed to be smooth, dang it!_

Of course he'd noticed Britt was cute from the minute that spell rebounded on her. You'd have to be blind and stupid not to notice that. And Alfred was neither of those, even though he wore glasses and ate food that was probably poisoning him slowly.

Feli was cute too, he guessed. But not like Britt. Feli had her head in the clouds all the time, which was all right if you were into that. But Alfred liked girls with the potential to be sidekicks to his heroicness—feisty, strong, independent, but also pretty and girly. And kissable. That was important. And he just couldn't see himself kissing Feli. Not because Ludwig would probably wring his neck for it, either.

Britt, though…It was so weird. As a guy, Britt had annoyed the crap out of Alfred with his high-handedness and snooty lordly attitude. That was why he'd moved out—because Britain had been bleeding America dry without any regard for what he claimed as his own. But somehow, when Britt was a chick it was different. Her snooty attitude was cute on a girl. Her high-handedness didn't make Alfred want to kick her somewhere painful.

He could see himself kissing her.

Very vividly.

Oh, yeah. Definitely.

"Alfred!" Ludwig's large hand caught Alfred's shoulder.

"What's up?" Alfred asked, feigning innocence. _Crap_. Why did those ex-Axis jerks have to be around to see Alfred make a fool of himself?

"Did you mean zat? What you said to Britt."

"What did I say?" In Alfred's experience, sometimes it was easiest to dodge a bullet like this by pretending it didn't exist.

Ludwig glared. Sometimes Alfred could swear the guy had lasers in the place of eyeballs. "Don't play dumb. You know vhat I mean. Vhen you called her cute, did you mean zhat?"

"Well..." The younger country started walking again, forcing Ludwig to keep up. "Yeah, I did. Ain't that a trip? I wish it hadn't come out though. It was kinda awkward!" Already he had stopped caring. What was done was done; Britt knew now. Who cared? She probably just thought he was a hormone-crazed pervert. Didn't all girls think that about guys?

"Ja, it kind of vas…" Ludwig trailed off. "Vhat are you going to do?"

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Vhat are you going to do? Are you going to, you know…" Germany coughed and looked away, flushing lightly. "Pursue her?" The guy's awkwardness when it came to romance was really hilarious. Poor Feli.

Alfred laughed out loud. "No way! I don't do that kinda thing. Too much work! I have plenty of girls who are dying to date a nation. Who cares if she's cute?"

He said that, but suddenly all the faces of those easy girls seemed very far away and forgettable. Britt's face, with her thick eyebrows and bottle-green eyes and soft pink lips…now that was _real_. Impossible to ignore.

Disgruntled, Ludwig averted his eyes. "So you don't…love her?"

"_Love_?" Alfred burst out laughing, earning a blue-laser glare from Ludwig. "You gotta be kidding me! After all the crap she put me through when she was a man? It's gonna take a lot more than a pretty face and…well, she's no Ukraine, but she's still pretty impressive—" Ludwig turned crimson at that "—to make me forget all that."

Face still a mottled red, Ludwig shook his head in frustration. "Zat's not right," he whispered softly. "Liking her just for her face and…er…never mind." His flush deepened.

Alfred glanced at the other man. "What? So you like Feli for some other reason?"

"V-vhat?" Now the German's entire face was scarlet. "Vho ever said zhat I like Feliciana?"

"Oh, c'mon, dude!" Alfred rolled his eyes. "Nobody had to _say_ anything. It's so obvious! Probably the only person who doesn't know is Feli, if that makes you feel any better. She's cool and all, but she's kind of dumb."

Ludwig looked like he was going to argue before realizing that he couldn't. Feli really wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. Colorful, cute, pretty much universally liked, but not bright.

"If I liked her—vhich I'm not saying I do—" Ludwig added sharply as Alfred smirked "it vouldn't be for vhat she looks like. She's really…sincere. And she refuses to give up even zhough she's so useless. She's always trying to be stronger, but she usually fails… But it's still good zhat she tries."

"Are you complimenting her or insulting her?" chuckled Alfred. _Ludwig's so clueless. This is friggin hilarious!_

Ludwig glared, but he looked so embarrassed that it didn't come over as very scary. "Neither! I'm just telling you vhat she's like! Nozing else!"

"Whatever!" Alfred lifted his hands in a that's-your-thing-dude gesture. "Well it's not like I'd still be here if I only cared about Britt for her face. She needs protecting, and I'm a hero! That's what I do."

Ludwig sighed, rubbing his eyelids. "Oh Alfred…" he groaned. "You're so…"

"Heroic? Amazing? Indescribably awesome? Flabbergastingly fantastical?" Alfred grinned widely as he waited to Ludwig to pick an adjective (a few of which Alfred was pretty proud for having come up with).

The German brought a closed fist down on Alfred's head, hard. "_Stupid_."

"Well, yeah, that too," garbled the very dizzy America from the floor.

"You'd better not bring zis up again if you don't really care about Britt, do you understand? If you hurt zat girl, I vill double it in your hide," Ludwig threatened, blue eyes flashing. "Feli counts her as a friend, and I von't let any of Feli's friends get hurt by a stupid American vho can't even see past her...face."

Woozily, Alfred responded, "Got it," offering a weak thumbs up.

Ludwig walked off, accompanied by the clacking of his combat boots, and Alfred picked himself up from off the floor. _Can't see past her face, huh? I could if I wanted to. But first I have to decide if there's anything worth seeing once I do._

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><p><strong>AN: *sigh* Alfred might have been a little OOC... I tried to keep him in character, though, so cut me a little slack! That's why he's such a pervert in this chapter. I can't imagine him crushing on a girl without thinking she's hot first.<strong>

**Alfred: You underestimate my heroic love capacity?**

**Me: Well... *looks away* No, I'm just questioning your capacity to _not _factor cuteness into the whole thing.**

**Alfred: ...**

**REVEIW! And Merry Christmas! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Sorry it took me so long to update this time, guys! My computer decided to die. Again. I swear, it just likes being irritating -.-**

**But here it is! This chapter's mainly USUK fluff, which I for one love x3 Enjoy! And don't forget to reveiw!**

**Oh, and I wanted to give a shoutout to the people who have reveiwed more than once: tillitorpedo91, Angel the Neko, The Voices Talk to Me, KoHachiProductions, Hotaru-Naichingeru, and Neehl! I really appreciate you guys sticking with me, and I just want you all to know I take your feedback to heart and love you all very much!**

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><p>"Ve~! Britt, your nails are so yucky!"<p>

Trying not to scream out of boredom, Britt shifted in her seat, trying not to jostle her right hand so Feli wouldn't accidentally saw one of her fingernails off with the nail file. After taking one look at Britt's fingernails, the airheaded Italian had been completely dismayed at their state and gone completely bonkers until Britt agreed out of frustration to let her fix them.

"Sorry. I don't really care about them," Britt said shortly.

"You gotta take care of yourself! Alfred won't think you're so cute if you don't look nice."

Britt's cheeks burned. "I don't care if that moron thinks I'm uglier than Ivan. Why should I?"

The redheaded Italian cocked her head to the side, looking confused. "Cuz he likes you, of course! Ve~!"

"What?"

"He said you were cute, which means he thinks you're pretty, which means he's in love with you!" Feli hummed happily with an idiotic smile on her face. "I'm so happy for you."

"What? How did it go from him accidentally giving me a compliment to being in love with me? He didn't even mean to say it!"

"Well that's how you know he really likes you! He can't help but say nice things about you!"

"That's…" Britt had been about to say _ridiculous_, but it made sense, actually. "If that jerk thinks he has a chance with me, then he's got another thing coming. I'd never date him! Just imagine what he'll look like in a few years if he keeps on eating like he does!"

"Yeah… He needs to go on a diet! And eat more tomatoes!"

"Yeah, sure." Italy had finished filing Britt's nails and was now carefully painting them navy blue, the same color as the backdrop of England's flag. "Do I have to wear polish?"

"I guess not, but you haveta start getting into all this girl stuff so you won't look silly at the world meeting!" Britt's thumbnail turned blue with three effortless swipes of the brush. It was kind of scary how good Feli was at this. But it made sense—she was a very artistic country. Her big hazel eyes looked up at Britt. "I think you shouldn't try so hard to change us back. You're going to hurt yourself! You gotta take a break now and then, ve~! Promise?"

"Don't you want to be a man again?" Britt asked, surprised.

Feli blinked. "Ve~? Of course! Ludwig says _Fratello_ won't like me as a girl, so I want to be a boy again so he won't be mean to me! But just because we can't change back yet doesn't mean we can't have a good time while we're girls, ve~!"

Britain chewed on that for a minute. "I guess… I won't stop trying, though."

"Ve~? Of course you can't stop trying. You always gotta try! That's what Ludwig tells me when I want to make pasta instead of training. But you can't try too hard either cuz then what are you going to do once you get what you want? You'll have been so busy trying to get something that once you have it you don't have anything else to do!"

"Feliciana, I think you just said something intelligent," Britt exclaimed.

"I did? Ve~!" Feliciana cried happily. "Well, all done! They can dry while I fix your hair!"

Britt glanced at her nervously and edged away. "I'll just wear it like it is, if that's okay."

Feli pouted. "Can I just give you a ponytail? That's manly, ve~!"

"Yes…yes, I supposed that would be alright." Maybe at first glance, people wouldn't notice she was a girl with her hair pulled back like that.

She looked down at herself and immediately discarded that thought. Why did she have to be so _girl-shaped_? Being a girl was bad enough. Being unable to avoid looking like one was just cruel.

Admittedly, the rasp of the brush through her hair felt nice, though. Suddenly she could feel the weight of all those sleepless nights pressing down on her eyelids…

"Britt, wake up! Dinner's ready, ve~!"

"Wha?" the Brit snapped to wakefulness at the sound of Feli's voice. "What happened? Was I asleep?"

"Si! You fell asleep when I was putting your hair up, but you looked so sleepy that I didn't want to wake you up! But it's time for dinner now, are you ready?"

"Uh, yes." Britt stood. "_What am I wearing_?"

"It's a dress, remember? I left it for you to put on after you took a bath."

Oh yeah. She had meant to change out of it. But now she was kind of starving, and didn't want to wait on dinner.

Peering at Britt, Feli frowned. "You should really shave your legs. It's yucky for a girl to have hairy legs."

"No _bloody_ way!"

"Whaaa…? When you were a guy you shaved your face every day, right? It's not so different with your legs, ve~!"

"No!" Although, it did look kind of weird. Of course, as a man, Britt had had girlfriends, and he would have gagged to see such nice legs so covered in hair. It was just a shame to ruin them like that.

_There is SO much wrong with that thought that I don't even know where to start_.

"Okay FINE." It was probably better for everyone involved if she just shaved them. "I'll do it later, okay?" Maybe Feli was right; she might as well be a girl the right way while she worked on trying to change back. She was well on her way already, it seemed. Really. Dresses and nail polish and agreeing to shave her legs all in one sitting? Was she nuts? Girl hormones were horrid.

"Ve~!" Feli agreed, skipping cheerfully off down the hallway. She wore a spaghetti strap dress in pale green with a floral pattern in white, with a band of lace at the hem. Her auburn hair swirled around her and her hazel eyes were wide and bright, and for a minute, it was hard for Britt to imagine Feli as a man.

_Maybe this is better for her_, Britt thought to herself. _Maybe she should stay this way. I know a certain gruff German who would be very happy if she did_.

What if that magical fluke had been something more? Like…destiny?

_No_, she growled. _I was never meant to be a woman. Feli's feminine, but not me._

She had managed to put the whole girl thing out of her mind, almost able to ignore the strange lightness and smallness of her body and the hair itching the back of her neck, when the two girls entered the dining room where Ludwig and Alfred were already waiting, standing behind their chairs and chatting. Well, Alfred was chatting, and Ludwig was doing a lot of sighing and dropping his forehead helplessly into a gloved palm.

Germany's eyes locked on Feli when she skipped in—as always—but then he turned away, blushing slightly. She did look awfully cute with her hair falling loose about her shoulders and her pale green dress turning her hazel eyes dark green. Britt was embarrassed for her, wearing such a girly color already. Good gracious—it was like she was _eager_ to be a girl. Britt's own dress was deep red. At least it was a manly-ish color, and didn't have any lace or frills like Feli's. Alfred was smirking at Ludwig's reaction to Feli, and studiously _not_ looking at Britt.

"Is everybody ready?" asked Feli, of course completely oblivious to everyone else's discomfort. If it weren't for her, this house would be completely quiet and a perpetual cloud of awkwardness would be hanging around all the time.

"You betcha!" yelled Alfred, taking a flying leap into his chair that made it rock dangerously. "Bring it on! I'm starving!"

Ludwig seated himself primly. Feliciana scurried off to the kitchen to get the food.

Britt sat down awkwardly, unsure of how to arrange herself in the dress. Keeping her legs closed took constant attention, but since she was across from Alfred she made sure to do it. _That pervert_. He wasn't as bad as Francis or Gilbert, but it's not like he was a stranger to women. How could he be? He thought he was God's gift to femalekind. Well, humankind in general, but women especially.

Luckily Feliciana was back soon, jabbering away about anything and everything as she dished out what she called _agnolotti_ (which Britt couldn't tell apart from regular ravioli, but it didn't really matter to her. It sounded more exotic anyway). Feli's general cheerfulness was contagious. Soon everyone was talking and laughing away like Alfred's slip-up from earlier had never happened.

Feli's fresh homemade pasta was always amazing, but tonight it seemed especially good to Britt; she hadn't eaten in a long time. How long had it been? Maybe a day and a half? She'd lost track. Wow. She _was_ going to kill herself.

She tried to maintain some semblance of common table etiquette, but she couldn't. The second the food touched her tongue she moaned and began scarfing the pasta like she was starving, which she was.

"Whoa, calm down Britt! You look like Alfred," giggled Feli.

The American laughed his "heroic" laugh. "I would never eat like that! I'm too amazing!"

"Git," Britt growled, ignoring Feli and continuing to swallow down the food like a starved dog, hardly tasting it in her rush to get it all into her empty stomach.

The ex-Axis countries ate slower, but Alfred and Britt were finished eating within fifteen minutes. Ludwig looked slightly sick from watching the two of them.

Britt belched contentedly, making Ludwig flinch, looking away from her.

"Nooo!" Feli looked fiercely at Britt. Her glare was hardly very effective—in fact, it looked so strange on her face that Britain felt an urge to laugh at the foreign expression. "Girls don't burp, ve~!"

"What? I can't burp?" demanded Britt.

"No, it's yucky!" Italy scowled. "You need to learn girl manners, ve~."

Britt scowled right back. "I don't want to! I'm already making enough girl concessions with the dress and the nails and the shaving."

Alfred burst out laughing. "Dude! You're going to _shave_?"

Britt's face turned the same color as her dress. "Well, nothing's decided yet."

"Nothing's decided yet? What, you getting married or something?" The younger country was practically in tears of mirth.

"Well I _am_ a girl now so I might as well shave!" Britt defended hotly. "Don't act like you haven't noticed because we all know you did!"

Alfred blinked and his laughter died quickly. Inside, Britt was kicking herself for bringing that back up.

Abruptly, she stood, tossing her napkin onto her empty plate. "Please excuse me. Thank you for dinner, Feli. It was delicious."

"Ve~," Feli protested. "You don't want dessert?"

"No thanks." And with that, Britt fled down the hallway back to her room, hiding from Ludwig's shock and Feli's insistence that she act like a girl and Alfred's big butterfly-inducing blue eyes.

o~O~o

_I can do this. I can do this. I can do this._

Britt sat on the edge of the tub, her legs lathered and the razor poised against her skin. But she couldn't make herself start shaving.

Every new girl thing that came up always seemed like the final concession to femalehood. First it was her name. Then it was a dress. Then it was groomed nails. Now it was shaving.

But this… This was so…_final_. She knew her hair would grow back when she managed to change back into a man, but it still seemed like if she did this, some irretrievable part of her manhood would be lost forever.

Because what was the only reason girls shaved? To attract men. If she did this, this would mean she was all girl through and through, including having a thing for guys. Not to mention the fact that there were only two guys in the whole house to attract, and one of them was all but taken and the other was so irritating that she wanted to punch him in the face half the time.

Taking a deep breath, Britt dragged the razor up her leg, taking off a wide strip of fine blond hair. She flinched as it came off. The line of hairless flesh seemed to mock her.

_Well, I can't stop now. I'm a pirate! I can do this_. The blonde nation gritted her teeth and finished the job. It might have been the hardest thing she'd ever done. And that included convincing Alfred that blindness was less heroic than glasses when he was just a stubborn teen.

_Stupid Alfred. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid STUPID…_

"OW!"

Swearing like a sailor, Britt dropped the razor into the bathwater, clasping her hands over the hole where a chunk of flesh was missing from her ankle. Redness seeped between her fingers.

"Holy mother of God this hurts! Drat it all! I thought I stopped cutting myself shaving centuries ago!" Still cursing, Britt dressed, shaking the moisture out of her damp hair and holding a paper towel to her injury.

The bathroom emitted a cloud of steam when she opened the door. Huh. She must have sat there trying to get up the nerve to start shaving longer than she'd thought.

Grumbling curses under her breath, Britt hobbled down the hallway, favoring her injured ankle. _Why won't it stop bleeding?_

Suddenly the last person she wanted to see came around the corner at the exact same time as she did and they ran right into each other.

"OW!" two voices cried indignantly as the pair fell to the floor.

"Britt?" asked America, adjusting his glasses on his nose. "What're you…" Then he caught sight of the red-soaked paper towel she was clutching to her leg. Instantly he had his hero face on. "You're hurt! I'll get the first aid kit, okay? BRB!"

Muttering darkly about what she'd do to her former little brother when he came back, Britt daubed at her cut. In the process of this she noticed something. _Whoa, my leg is so smooth!_ Fascinated, she rubbed a hand across the length of her calf, marveling at its sleekness.

Alfred was back in less than a minute, holding the first aid kit, at which point Britt stopped obsessively rubbing her leg. She's had no idea that he'd remembered where she kept the medicine. It was so strange—he seemed to have no problem finding random things like scissors or spoons, but he had to search for half an hour to find his room after dinner each night.

"Here, let me take care of that," Alfred said, carefully stretching out her leg to rest her foot in his lap so he could doctor it. His probing fingers were surprisingly gentle on her skin as he smoothed antibiotic gel across the cut to clean it.

Britt observed him as he worked. He was wearing his hero pajamas, a sweatshirt covered in Marvel superheroes and matching sweatpants, and was barefoot. His messy, dirty blonde hair was damp, like he'd also just gotten out of the bath, and looked like he hadn't bothered to brush it afterwards. In many ways, he was still the child she remembered fighting with France over the right to raise. But he was also a lot different—she could tell by the concern and concentration creasing his brow as he taped a bandage across the freshly cleaned wound.

"There, all done!" he announced, wiggling her big toe playfully and winking at her. "You're good as new thanks to your hero!"

"Git." Britt glared at him.

As always, he ignored her. Instead of responding, he wrapped a hand around her ankle, removed her foot from his lap, and placed it on the floor. But when it was on the floor, he didn't let go. His eyes widened as he had a realization, the same one she had experienced a moment before.

"Dude! Your legs are so smooth!" He ran a hand from her ankle to her knee and back, staring at the soft skin as if its smoothness was a deception.

"Stop groping me!" she cried angrily, drawing her leg back under, definitely _not_ blushing and _not_ feeling any stirring of warmth in her belly at his less-than-platonic touch. "Who do you think you are, Gilbert?"

"But… They were just so smooth…" he pouted.

Britt stood with a huff. "I'm going to sleep! Be sure and put the first aid kit away," she ordered, turning back towards her room.

"Yes _ma'am_," he drawled, making her draw her spine up stiffly. "And by the way, you're even cuter when you're blushing!"

Red-faced, Britt whirled, perfectly manicured nails poised to rip Alfred's face off, but he had already disappeared.

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><p><strong>AN: Me: Bahahaha! I can't believe how much a fit you threw over a little scrape!<strong>

**Britt: It hurt! Did you see all that blood?**

**Me: It's a fanfiction! Of course I didn't SEE it.**

**Britt: ...Did you just break the fourth wall?**

**Me: This is an author's note so it doesn't count. Just don't tell Feli; she'll freak out.**

**Feliciana: Don't tell me what, ve~?**

**Me and Britt: NOTHING!**

**Reveiw!**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: I know I updated yesterday, but today's a holiday, so I figured I'd give everyone a New Year's present! =D This chapter might be my favorite so far. And yes, the rating did go up to T, if anyone was confused. Because of-wait for it-hair curl.**

**Yes, hair curl. I hope you guys enjoy it! That's one of my favorite things about Italy and it was very fun to write. xD**

**Oh, and I've had a couple people commenting saying that they don't like the name Brittany for England, and I'm sorry to hear that.**** I'd seen Alice for fem!England, but I didn't care for the name, so I decided to come up with something different for mine. That's why she's Britt! I think it suits her better; Alice is just too feminine a name for him, if you ask me.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. And I keep forgetting to tell you people that.**

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><p>"Ve~! I guess it's just you and me, Germany!"<p>

Ludwig took the plate of cake Feli handed him with a "_Danke_." She settled into the couch next to him, letting him work the remote control to start the movie.

About a minute after Britt had run out of the dining room at dinner, Alfred had left too. Even the American's idiocy hadn't been able to erase the awkward moment, so he'd gotten out of it as quickly as he could.

Then Feli had asked Ludwig if he'd watch a movie with her. She'd been all excited about one that Alfred had brought over from his house last time he went to get clothes, and of course Ludwig couldn't say no to her eagerness. So here they were, alone in the dark as the opening previews began to play.

"I heard this one's good! I'm so excited," Feli said, snuggling into his side contentedly.

Startled by her closeness, Ludwig glanced down at Feli, a blush coloring his face. She'd always been touchy. Maybe he was just now noticing because now she was…a she. "Ja… I heard zat too."

"It made me happy that you said you'd watch with me, ve~," she said, curling her legs under her as the screen came to life. "I like not being at war anymore. There's so much more time to have fun when we're not training and stuff!"

That hurt a little. That training had been for her own good! But Ludwig just sighed, unable to organize his thoughts enough to form a retort.

Ludwig still hadn't been able to sort through his feelings about Feliciana. His side, to which she was pressed so tightly that would have made Kiku faint, felt like it was being jolted with electricity, but he wasn't sure if he liked it. He wasn't used to…emotions in general, but especially attraction of any kind. _Especially_ potentially romantic attraction.

For a while the sounds of the commercials were accompanied by the clink of their forks on their plates, but that quieted, and Feli's eyes were riveted on the screen, so he didn't want to talk and disturb her. Without anything to do, Ludwig could only focus on the pressure of her slight body on his side.

Suddenly a thought occurred to him. _Does she vant me to put my arm around her? Is zat vhy she's so close?_ A blush rose on his broad Aryan cheekbones, but luckily he was too much taller than Feliciana for her to notice.

He spent the entire movie debating whether or not he should try to put his arm around the auburn-haired girl next to him. At the end of it, he had no idea what he'd just spent two hours of his life looking at; he'd been too concerned with the girl at his side and whether or not he should just let his arm come to rest about her slight shoulders.

But he didn't. He couldn't bring himself to do it, too scared that wasn't what she wanted.

By the time the credits began to scroll down the screen, it was very late. Ludwig started to get up, wanting to stretch his stiffened muscles, but stopped himself abruptly when he looked down at Feli. That lazy little Italian was fast asleep with her head on Ludwig's broad chest.

Ludwig softened, a slight smile coming to his face. He wasn't used to the expression, but it came naturally around Feli. Sometimes. When she wasn't being an idiot. So usually it was when she was unconscious.

He couldn't bring himself to disturb her, looking so peaceful like that. And he had to admit, even after two hours of it, the feel of her resting against him still made goose bumps erupt on his skin. So he joined her in dreamland just a few minutes later, allowing sleep to claim him and his arm to finally fall around Feli's shoulders.

The warm light of dawn through the windows woke Ludwig up in the morning. He rubbed the sleep from his ice-blue eyes and looked around. This wasn't his room. Where was he?

Oh yes. The movie. Feli.

_Feli_.

Of course, she was still asleep. But somewhere during the night, she'd fallen from her position against his side. Now she had her head in his lap, a hand resting on his knee and her auburn hair spilling across it.

_Mien gott_.

Ludwig's brain went into survival mode. How to get out from under her without waking her? Maybe he'd have to resort to waking her up. She'd survive; she took siestas every four hours anyway. _I can't just let her LAY there! It's indecent!_

For a long time he was frozen, unable to create a coherent plan from the formless jumble his thoughts had become. But he had a sneaking suspicion that there was some part of him—just a LITTLE one—that didn't really _want_ her to move away.

Without really getting his permission first, his pale fingers began to stroke through her soft copper-colored hair. _I never zought zat it could be so soft_, he thought wonderingly. One touch and he was a goner. He couldn't have stopped himself if he wanted to now. _Am I a pervert like zat creepy Frenchman? _he wondered guiltily as he threaded his long fingers through the autumn-hued strands.

His stroking hands moved closer and closer to the roots of her hair. Hoping he didn't wake her—he wasn't ready for her to wake up; once she was awake he'd feel too awkward to do this anymore, and he liked it—he ran his hands through the locks on the side of her head. The side of his pinky finger brushed against that strange, lone curl at the side of her head.

Feli twitched in her sleep, a squeak escaping her lips.

Ludwig paused, waiting to see if she'd wake. She didn't.

_Vhat vas zhat?_ he wondered. _Is her head ticklish or somezing? _That would be just like Feli.

He resumed combing his fingers through her hair. Once again, his hand caught the curl by accident, but this time it slid slowly between two of his fingers as he brushed them through.

This time Feli moaned, turning over so that her sleeping face was turned towards Ludwig. And it certainly didn't sound like a ticklish sort of moan.

He stared down at her. _Is she dreaming? No, it's only when I touch zat one curl. Vhy, I vonder…?_

Unable to restrain his curiosity, Ludwig brushed his thumb slowly along the length of the curl.

Feli gasped, her whole body twitching sharply, eyes rolling under closed lids. Frowning, he gave the curl a slight tug, one that shouldn't have been enough to wake her.

But it did. Her eyes popped wide as she groaned, and for a second she just sat there with her head on his knee, panting.

"Feli?" Ludwig asked as she sat up. She had an odd cloudy look in her eye, and she was unnaturally quiet and serious-looking. "I'm sorry zhat I woke you, I was just—"

He was cut off as Feli's lips came down on his.

Instantly every thought in his mind was crushed into oblivion. The only thing his senses registered, what his entire being was trained towards, was the pressure of Feli's lips on his.

Only one thought survived.

_MIEN. GOTT_.

Feliciana Vargas, Italy Veneziano, that little maid he'd loved since he was a child, was kissing him. _Really_ kissing him.

But it was so…unlike anything he'd ever expected from her. Not that he'd fantasized about kissing her, because that would be strange. It was just too…passionate. She would have made a certain self-proclaimed _p__aí__s__ de pasi__ó__n_ very proud. Her lips on his were not gentle, and there was no question of who was in charge of the kiss. And it wasn't who it probably should have been.

_Passionate is not a bad zing_, the hormonal man part of him piped up.

Not bad, but also…not Italy.

Still. His arms went around her instinctively. His fingers slid into her silky copper hair, securing her mouth to his. _Gott, zis is heaven_, he moaned in his mind as he breathed her in, clutching her close to his chest, drawing her to his pounding heart.

Suddenly the kiss began to grow sluggish, as if Feli was confused. Ludwig let the contact slow to a halt, unsure of how to commandeer the kiss, as much as he wanted to.

"Ludwig?" she said, pulling back ever so slightly, shaking her head as if awaking from a dream. Her eyes still had that strange look in them, clouded by some thick emotion that was slowly beginning to clear.

"Feli?" he asked. "Are you alright?" His fingers slid through her hair as he tightened his grip on her, his index finger accidentally brushing the strange curl again.

Without warning her tantalizing rough lips were back on his, even more demanding than before.

_Is it… It can't be. Ze curl?_ Ludwig thought incredulously.

Reluctantly, the German unpried Feli's arms from around him and he held her at arm's length. She fought to get to him, crying, "Ludwig! Don't be so mean! I know you want another kiss!" And he did, more than he'd ever wanted to win World War II or teach this dratted Italian how to run fast when he wasn't being chased. But he still held her away until her struggles became less and less frantic, and finally ceased altogether. It took every ounce of his considerable self-control, but he did it.

The odd look was gone from her eyes. Now they were their usual bright hazel, albeit confused. "Wha… What happened, ve~?"

"Ah…You vere asleep, and I vas playing vith your hair" he blushed self-consciously "and zen you voke up and started…kissing me." His pink flush deepened to scarlet.

Italy's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm so sorry! You musta touched my curl." Glancing down with embarrassment, she gathered her hair over her shoulder and smoothed the ends, avoiding his eyes. "It gets kinda…you know. When somebody touches it or pulls it. Especially when somebody pulls it."

Ludwig couldn't believe his ears. "So zis hair curl… It makes you _horny_ when somebody pulls it?"

The flush on Feli's cheeks deepened. "Si~… You just saw. I'm sorry to do that to you, Ludwig, but I don't really know what I'm doing when it gets touched!"

_Ouch_. He felt like his heart had just been shoved into a meat grinder. "So… If it was Alfred vho pulled it, vould you have done ze same zing?"

She nodded. "Or maybe even if it was Britt," she admitted. "Like I said, I just don't know _what_ I'll do when somebody tugs on it."

Well. Ludwig ran a hand through his fair hair. Freed from its usual slicked-back style, it was falling into his eyes—so irritating. But sort of welcome right now. He wanted a distraction from the sudden pang in his chest.

_She didn't mean it_.

It had been the best sixty seconds of his multiple centuries of life, and she hadn't even meant it.

To distract himself, he asked the first question that popped into his mind. "Does Romano's curl make him…do z_at_ too?"

Feli nodded. "Si." Then she clapped her hands over her mouth as if to take the words back, eyes flying wide. "Oh no! I wasn't supposed to tell anybody about _Fratello's_ curl! He said he'd rip my intestines out and jump rope with them if I ever told! And then I could never eat pasta again!"

Apparently Romano had been pretty threatening, because Feli started to cry. Ludwig stared at her, unsure of what to do. He settled for an awkward shoulder pat.

That wasn't enough for Feli. Wailing, she threw her arms around him and bawled into his broad chest.

Dazedly, he held her to him, patting her head—careful to avoid the erogenous curl. How he wished he was still holding her to him as she kissed him senseless. "Don't vorry," he soothed. "I von't tell him zhat I know."

Her tears stopped. "You won't?" she sniffled.

"_Nien_," he responded as kindly as he could considering the ripping pain in his chest that he was trying valiantly to ignore.

"_Grazie_… At least you're not Big Brother Spain. Lovi said he would use the Spanish Inquisition tools in their house on me if I ever told _him_."

Still wrestling with the pain in his heart, Ludwig nodded mutely. "Ah… I have to go. My boss vants me to do an inspection today… I'll probably be gone most of ze day." _Just get away from her. Just get away_, he begged himself internally. _Being around her… It hurts too much._

All emotions should be destroyed in some fiery cataclysm. They were too distracting, too painful.

"Aww," Feli pouted.

Ludwig turned towards the door, only to be stopped by Feli's voice crying, "Wait, Ludwig!"

Unwillingly, he turned back towards her. She stood up on the couch, its height making up for the considerable distance between theirs, and kissed him on both cheeks.

She grinned at him happily, totally oblivious to how her touch sent his heart racing faster than her retreat from Britain. "_Arrivederci_! Hasta la pasta!" she said brightly.

"Erm… Ja." Ludwig turned and stubbornly did not run down the hallway. Maybe work would get his mind off of this.

Somehow he doubted it.

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><p><strong>AN: Hope this appeased everyone's inner fangirl! It sure did mine xD I didn't even like Ludwig much before I started writing this fanfic, but writing through his perspective gave me a new appreciation for him.<strong>

**Reveiw and tell me what you think!**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Hey guys, it's me again! I wanted to thank everyone for all the super-nice reviews! You guys are so cool :3 I love you all, and I'm so happy that you like my fic!**

**Shadowwolf49 had some questions for me, so I'm using the rest of this Author's Note to answer them. Here goes:**

**_What movie are they watching?_ Inception! That's like my favorite movie ever, but it was too much for poor Feli's brain to handle, so she fell asleep.**

**_Where's Alfred during all this love?_ He's in his room, playing a video game. His rare ability to sense awkwardness made an appearance so he's avoiding Britt.**

**_Why didn't Ludwig tell Spain about the ero-zone?_ Because he doesn't want Feli to die and Lovi would probably actually kill her for telling Ludwig xD In my mind, the Italies try to keep their curls' abilities on the down-low because Romano lives with a pervert who's madly in love with him. And that could be problematic if Spain found out about Romano's easily accessable super-erogenous zone.**

**If anyone else has a question for me, please ask; that was kinda fun xD Okay, now to the fic!**

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><p>America tapped his chin on the back of the chair he was straddling, a dead bored expression on his face, and stared down at Britain. "It's still not working."<p>

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," snapped Britt, angrily snatching her cloth up and furiously erasing the lines of yet another unsuccessful circle. _Bloody idiot! _"I couldn't tell!"

"Whoa, that sounds like a total hero name!" crowed Alfred.

A vein in Britt's forehead twitched as she sketched out the beginnings of her next attempt.

Alfred was bored. And nothing was more irritating than a bored blonde American.

"Ve~," Italy sighed from the corner, probably just bored with not having anything to say. "Pasta, pasta, pasta…"

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO EVEN DOING IN HERE ANYWAY?"

"Ludwig had to go to work today," Feli pouted. "So I don't have anybody to talk to but you!"

"And I'm making sure you don't blow yourself up," Alfred chimed in with a smirk, like he was making her day.

_I wish I could blow something up_, Britt thought, frustrated. _I wish I could make ANYTHING happen!_

She sighed and made another circle.

And another.

And another.

And another.

Hours passed. Feli drifted out of the room with a "Ve~…" and drifted back in an hour or so later, then wandered out again. Alfred sat there in his chair the whole time, dozing, playing a handheld video game, watching her, trying to decipher a magic book. Britt spent the whole time on her knees, drawing circle after useless circle.

When the seventeenth circle failed Britt finally threw in the towel. Literally. She tossed the rag she'd been using to clean the circles off the floor right into Alfred's face just as he'd been dozing off from boredom with a loud, piratey "Arg!"

"Hey!" America pulled the rag off his face and swiped at his cheeks and glasses, which were dusted with chalk. "What was that for?"

"Getting rid of two aggravations at once," she growled, stomping out of the room. As she left, she snatched a book off the shelf, thumbing through it to find any clues as to what her new circle could look like.

She wandered down the halls, flipping through the book. Nothing.

Nothing, nothing, _nothing_.

She ended up back in her room somehow. Her brain was so full of all the patterns that hadn't worked, all the ways she still had left to try. Remembering Feli's advice, she decided to try doing some needlework to take her mind off her work. She collapsed into the couch and picked up her embroidery hoop, one that she hadn't touched since her transformation. It had a half-finished Union Jack on it in vivid red and navy blue.

One by one Britt's tense muscles began to unknot as she deftly maneuvered the needle to make her beloved flag bloom on the canvas stretched taut across the hoop. When he was a child, Alfred always used to make fun of her for having such a girly hobby. _It's like I always knew this was coming_, she thought in a fit of black humor. _Maybe I should pursue divining once this whole fiasco is over with._

"Britain?" squeaked a very familiar voice from the window.

Britt's head snapped up from the embroidery hoop, the blood draining from her face. _Can I get out of here?_ she wondered desperately, looking around wildly for an escape route. _Any_ escape route. _Dang it! The window's in between here and the door! I don't want them to see me like this!_

Too late. A pale green rabbit floated into the room through the half-open window, held aloft by a pair of angelic wings. Behind her came a majestic silvery white unicorn with a cerulean mane, a pink-haired fairy in a summery yellow flower-petal dress, a grizzly pirate with a hook and a rumpled crimson coat, and a leprechaun sporting a carefully trimmed and waxed mustache. Britt had a sudden girlish urge to say, "Aww!" when she saw Uni, Tinker Bell, and Flying Mint Bunny, but she managed to repress it.

"Britain?" called Flying Mint Bunny again. "Where are you?"

"Hey, who's that?" demanded the leprechaun, staring Britt down shamelessly. For a second Britt was surprised he dared be so open about his scrutiny. Then she realized why. _Of course, they don't realize I can see them_, she recalled.

Tinker Bell paused, her wings fluttering. Glowing gold pixie dust drifted from her tiny body whenever she moved. "I've never seen her before, but she looks awfully familiar…"

Flushing with an odd mixture of embarrassment and panic, Britt focused on her needlework, trying to act as though she couldn't see her friends. _Maybe they won't realize it's me and they'll go away_, she thought desperately. Even more than Francis and Yao and Ivan—and who was the other Ally? She could have sworn there were six of them—she didn't want her friends to see her like this. They were the only creatures in the world whose opinion actually mattered to her. Well, she cared what the other nations thought, but her friends' disappointment would hurt her far more than any ridicule or sexual harassment she received at the hands of her fellow countries.

"Do you think she's Arthur's girlfriend?" wondered Flying Mint Bunny, placing a little paw on her chin thoughtfully.

Britt's cheeks were hot. _Stupid girl hormones_! She indulged in some very creative curses in her head.

Captain Hook scraped at a scrap of food between his teeth with his hook. "No way. Arthur wouldn't leave his girlfriend alone, especially if he brought her to his room. Unless they were going steady, but it hasn't been that long since we've seen him."

Tossing her silken mane, Uni nickered, "Look at her eyebrows! Do you think she's Arthur's sister?"

_Blast! Uni, why'd you have to be so smart?_ moaned Britt internally.

Leprechaun's eyes widened. "Aye! She looks just like him!"

"She has to be related to him somehow. Do you think that means she can see us?" Flying Mint Bunny asked excitedly. "Hey, girl! Can you hear me?"

Britt didn't look up, but her blush deepened. _They think I'm my own sister!_

Hook's eyebrows drew together. "Aye, she can hear you. But she's pretending not to."

"Why would she do that?" asked Flying Mint Bunny, sounding wounded. "We don't want to hurt her or anything." She turned her words to Britt. "I'm sorry, we don't mean to frighten you. We're just looking for our friend. Have you seen Mr. Britain around?"

Unwillingly, but unsure of what else she could do, Britt lifted her eyes from her needlework. "Umm…" Could she tell them? With despair, she realized that there was no escape. She'd have to tell them. There was no way she could lie to her friends—gentlemen did not lie.

_You're not a man anymore!_ part of her reasoned desperately, but she silenced it. "Actually, chaps, it's…it's me."

The magical creatures' eyes widened. The leprechaun's looked ready to fall out of his head. "Blimey! What did you do to yourself, laddie?" gasped Leprechaun, mouth agape.

"Is it really you?" Flying Mint Bunny swooped around Britt, her little green nose wrinkling as she inhaled her scent. "It is! What happened?"

"Italy," Britt groaned. "She interrupted me when I was experimenting, and the spell changed her into a girl. Then when I tried to do a gender transmutation to change her back, America burst in like he does"—all her friends grimaced understandingly; they'd been around often when Alfred was a child and knew how loud, inconsiderate, and attention-seeking he was—"and the spell rebounded on me."

All her friends jumped in with their own form of comfort. Flying Mint Bunny landed on Britt's shoulder, nuzzling into her neck with a soft pale green nose; Tink murmured consolingly as she sat on Britt's other shoulder and gently stroked her hair. Hook shouted loudly, "When I get my hands—er, _hand_—on that boy of yours I'll murder 'im!" Leprechaun bellowed a few of his favorite curses at the top of his lungs—Britt really owed a lot of her cursing ability to him—and Uni nibbled comfortingly on Britt's sleeve.

"Aw, thanks, guys. You always know just what to say to cheer me up!" Smiling, Britain gave Uni and Flying Mint Bunny a pat.

"I think you're beautiful as a girl," Tink added brightly, flapping her wings against Britt's ear.

That reminded Britt of Alfred. Her expression darkened.

"What's wrong?" asked Uni, blowing a horsey kiss into Britt's hand.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you're not the only ones who think so, apparently."

"Ooh! Who?" demanded Captain Hook, purple eyes bright with interest. Leprechaun stared at him, aghast, making Hook blush furiously.

Britt was a little disturbed herself. Hopefully not all pirates were secretly romantics at heart, because then Britt could have a problem. Still, she forced herself to choke out the answer to his question. "Alfred, actually."

Tink almost fell off of Britt's shoulder. "_What_? But he's your little brother!"

Turning pink, Britt found herself babbling excuses. "Well, he hasn't lived here for a long time, and he hadn't really been around me too much before World War I, so it's like we're hardly even brothers anymore, I mean—well, _I'm_ not a brother anymore, obviously—and he didn't say I was _beautiful_, he just said _cute_, but it sounded like…The way he looked at me when he said it, I knew that he _meant_ beautiful because it made me feel…" Realizing that she'd just been spewing sentimental word vomit, Britt shut up like a clam, the pink of her cheeks darkening to a crimson that soon covered her whole face.

All her friends were grinning widely at her. The force of their leers was almost a physical weight. "Yes?" Flying Mint Bunny prompted, giggling. "What did it make you feel?"

"Nothing! Why would I feel anything? You already said it, he's my little brother, so why would I feel anything?" Britt stammered defensively.

"I don't have a clue why, but you're blushing fit to explode, lassie," Leprechaun said with a cheeky grin. "So why don't you tell us why? Got something to hide?"

By now Britt's face was so hot she felt like she was sweating. "No, of course not!"

"Then tell us!" urged Hook, poking her with his metal appendage. He probably didn't realize how much it looked like a threat, but it definitely made Britt's collar feel tight.

All of the creatures began to pester her, begging, "Tell us! Tell us!" Britt began to feel claustrophobic.

The words exploded out of Britt without her permission. "Fine! It made me feel like I _was_ beautiful! AND I LIKED IT, OKAY? ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?"

The embroidery hoop in her hands would be lucky to survive if she didn't stop gripping it so hard. But she couldn't help it. _STUPID GIRL HORMONES!_ Inside she was wrestling to shove down the warm rustling of butterfly wings she got in her belly every time she remembered what he'd said to her. That was something she couldn't allow herself to feel. _He's your little brother. Your little brother! You're a man! Not a woman! You can't feel like this!_

"Girls are suckers for flattery," she finished lamely. _That's the only reason. I should slap him for thinking stuff like that about me, dang it!_

"We definitely are," Tinker Bell agreed tactfully. Britt was grateful for that, but since Hook and Leprechaun were still staring at her with their eyes falling out of their heads, it didn't make her feel much better.

Clearing her throat after an awkward moment of silence, Britt changed the subject. "So enough about me! What have you guys been up to recently? I'm terribly sorry that I avoided you, but you understand why now, right?"

Thankfully, no one broached the topic of Alfred again, and the ragtag group of friends had a grand old time as always. There was laughter all around, and more than anything it did Britain a world of good just to see a roomful of faces that she didn't feel like punching.

o~O~o

America never knocked. It just wasn't his style.

But whenever he walked in on Britt's conversations with the air, he always regretted it. Even when he'd been a kid, seeing his adopted daddy talking to nothing scared the bajeezus out of him.

So when he walked into Britt's room and took a look at her sitting there on the couch with an embroidery hoop in her hand, petting the air above her shoulder as she laughed, he just turned around and walked right back out before she saw him.

"Good thing she was always like this or I'd think this girl thing had made her crack!" Alfred said to himself as he walked down the hall with his arms behind his head. Today had been such a fail. Nothing to do. The most interesting thing to happen all day was getting lobbed in the face with a chalky rag! Now that was seriously lame.

But still. It hadn't been a total waste. He'd gotten to spend several hours just staring at Britt without her noticing. _Score!_ Whenever she noticed him staring he got yelled at, but today he'd gotten a free pass.

She really was adorable. Maybe even hot. She didn't even try to look good, but she always did. And she had a way of glaring at him and lecturing him that made him want to just plant one on her right then and there.

He wondered if maybe he should try thinking about the way she made him feel. _Nah, that's not how I roll_, he decided. _Maybe later. I got time_. Britt probably wouldn't be able to make the switch again for months at least. And Alfred preferred to just let things happen how they happened, girlfriend-wise at least.

_Yeah, I got all the time in the world_.

o~O~o

"Draw a circle, that's the Earth, draw a circle, that's the Earth, draw a circle, that's the Earth; I am Hetalia!" Feliciana sang to herself as she hung her laundry up in her closet. She always sang that song when she did chores, just like when she'd lived at Austria's house.

Feli frowned at how few girl clothes she had. Britt had let her order some stuff on the computer, but not much since they didn't really know her size. A few of the things had been too big. Good thing Britt fit most of the stuff that had been too big for Feli! That had worked out so good!

Britt had given Feli such a nice room. The bed was huge! Feli loved sleeping on it; it was like a big poofy cloud, but you didn't fall through!

Plopping down on her cloud-bed, Feli sighed. "I hope Ludwig isn't mad at me. I didn't mean to kiss him," she said to herself. "I just can't help it when somebody pulls my curl like that! I don't like it when he's mad, ve~!"

He'd looked so upset, though. It made Feli sad to remember. It also made her sad that Ludwig didn't want her to kiss him. She'd liked it. Whenever somebody pulled her hair curl, she wasn't in control and her memories were fuzzy, but she could remember a little of what happened. And it had been good. Even though Ludwig hadn't liked it, she had.

"Maybe I don't kiss girly enough for Ludwig," she mused. "I mean, my last kiss was from when I was a man! Maybe he thinks it's yucky since I'm gonna change back. Still, I don't think I was _that_ bad! But he didn't let me kiss him…he held me away…" She sighed again.

Ludwig was so handsome, and strong, and brave, and he took care of Feli. Even when she'd been a boy, Feli had liked him for that. But now she couldn't stop thinking about him. When she was a boy, she'd thought about being big and strong like Germany. He reminded her of her Grandpa Rome—he was just as strong and powerful, just without the skirt. When she was a girl, though, she didn't want to be strong like him. She wanted him to protect her more. She thought about being his girlfriend and kissing him again and holding his big strong hands in hers and letting him take care of her forever.

"I think that would be almost as good as pasta…" she sighed as she drifted off to sleep.

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><p><strong>AN: I know, I said I would probably never do a Feli POV... But I did. It was short, but I did it! I just hope it sounds airheaded enough... I thought it was cute, though! GerIta FTW!<strong>

**Anyway, a few short announcements before I end my AN-I'm going to be starting a prompts fic as a side project soon, so be watching for that! Also, there's a poll on my profile for you guys to help me decide how my next fic will end. The fic will be either PruCan or Franada, but I'm torn, so you guys are going to have to step up to the plate and pick for me! Votevotevote for your favorite (on my profile please, so I don't have to count up reviews)!**

**France: Come now, _mon chers_! Pick me, you know you want to. *smoky sexy eyes***

**Prussia: *shoves France* Shut it, Francy-pants, I'm gonna be the one to get voted togezer vith Birdie!**

**France: Onhonhonhon~! You wish! Maddie and I are united by the language of love, and you know what you can do just by speaking _Francois_... *suggestive leer***

**Prussia: Pervert! Don't talk about MY Birdie like that! *punches France***


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Hey everyone! This chapter is dedicated to Ludwig, which I'm happy about because I love his romantic awkwardness! It has Prussia in it too, which never hurt anybody ;P My HRE theory is also explained in here-you guys remember how he had all his memories, right? Well, you'll find out why in this chapter.**

**Speaking of Prussia, everyone please vote for the guy who'll end up with fem!Canada in my next fic if you haven't yet! It's between France and Prussia and your favorite needs your votes!**

**Also, just because it looks kind of strange, "Vest" is supposed to be "West" xD Accents get confusing sometimes.**

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><p>Ludwig shut the door to his house hard. "Gilbert, I'm home," he called down the hallway. He hoped that Gilbert was here and not out partying with Francis and Antonio. He hadn't seen his brother in days, and—as much as he hated to admit it—it would be nice to see the big goof.<p>

A shaggy white head popped out of the kitchen door. "Vest!" cried the eldest (and purportedly most awesome) German brother. "You're actually here! Vhat in the vorld have you been up to?"

"I've been staying viz a friend," Ludwig said evasively, striding towards the kitchen to join his brother. "Is zere any vurst? I've had a long day."

Ludwig hadn't actually lied to Italy. Well, he had. He didn't actually have to do an inspection, but he _had_ been falling behind on his work, rushing home every day to see Feliciana. Today he'd made all of that missed work up—and he was exhausted because of it. Now he was doubly glad he had decided to stay home tonight. Not only did he not have to worry about seeing Feli, but he would actually get to sleep. Feli was his best friend, but she was also the most exhausting person he knew.

"Ja, I just made some. It's awesome, of course," Gilbert said absently, scrutinizing his brother. "Vhat's the matter viz you?"

"Nozing," Ludwig said, grabbing a fork and spearing a sausage still sitting in the pan in its own coagulated grease. He wrinkled his nose as he took a hungry bite of the wurst—the kitchen was a mess! He left for a few days and _this_ was what happened. _Can't ANYBODY I know take care of zemselves?_ he wondered despairingly. Looks like his relaxing night was a sad fantasy after all.

Prussia was persistent. His white eyebrows drew together as he studied his younger brother. "You look like you just got run over by a tank. Vhat happened?" Suddenly his crimson eyes widened with a realization. "You didn't get laid, did you? _Mien gott_, I zought zis day would never come! Zat's so _awesome_!" He tackled Ludwig with a hug. "Vho was it? Tell me all about it! C'mon, spit it out!"

"I didn't…do anyzing like _zhat_!" cried Ludwig, scandalized. "Get off me before I gas you, you imbecile!"

Gilbert looked confused. "If you didn't get laid, zen why are you blushing like zat?"

It was true; Ludwig's cheeks were flaming at Gilbert's words. "Because even zough you've known me for all these centuries you still seem to zink zat I will still turn out like you one of zese days!" he roared.

"Aw, c'mon. It would be awesome for you to loosen up a little! You've always got a stick up your—"

"_Shut up_, Prussia! I am not joking about gassing you!"

"But zere's a girl, right?" The albino's grin widened when Ludwig's mouth snapped shut guiltily, his face reddening. "I knew it! Vhat happened?"

"Nozing really!" Ludwig said defensively. "I just… She kissed me."

"AWESOME!" crowed Gilbert. "My little _bruder_'s growing up!"

Germany turned red. "I've had relationships before!"

"Yeah but nozing _happened_. You're kind of lame when it comes to girls, Vest. Hate to say it, but you are." He patted Ludwig's shoulder consolingly. "I'm your awesome _bruder_ so I have to tell you ze hard truz sometimes."

Ludwig knocked Gilbert's hand away, an icy glare meeting cheerful crimson. "I don't even zink zat she actually likes me. It vas kind of an accident."

"So it vas just a peck?" Gilbert looked crestfallen. "And here I zought zat you'd gotten some real action!"

"Vell…" Ludwig scratched the back of his neck and bit into his wurst. _This is so awkvard!_ "She did kiss me, but she vas half-asleep at ze time…"

Too late, he realized his mistake. Gilbert's eyes were the size of grenades. "You vere vith her vhen she just woke up? Does zhat mean you vere at her _house_?"

"No, it's not hers," Ludwig backtracked quickly. "She vas just staying ze night zere, and so vas I, and…"

"And you didn't make a move on her? LUDWIG! You put your awesome _bruder_ to shame!" Gilbert really did look disappointed. "Vhat kind of man are you?"

"Ze non-sex-crazed kind!" Ludwig growled. "Just because I don't spend every night viz a different voman doesn't mean I'm not a man, East!"

Prussia scowled petulantly. "It kinda does," he mumbled, under his breath like a child who had to get a point in but was too scared he'd be heard.

"Sometimes I vonder vhich of us is ze eldest," grumbled Ludwig, grinding his forehead into the heel of his palm. With a sigh, he stuck the rest of the wurst into his mouth and swallowed it. "I'm going to bed. You should clean zis mess up." _I'm not going to clean up his messes anymore! Not vhen he's being such an imbecile._

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "Yes ma'am."

"Just shut up and do it!" Ludwig ordered, shooting his best glare over his shoulder. He'd paralyzed greater men than Gilbert with that glare.

Unfortunately, his _bruder _seemed to have some sort of immunity to his glares. Gilbert just waved him off. "Sweet dreams, Vest. I'll get to vhenever I get to it."

Grumbling under his breath, Ludwig stomped to his bathroom and showered. Being clean always made him feel better, and he really needed that tonight. Unfortunately, it didn't help like he was hoping it would. Gilbert's words were echoing through his mind no matter how hard he tried to shut them up. Maybe he _was_ lame. He hadn't known what to do when she'd kissed him. He'd held her back, for goodness sakes! What had possessed him to do that?

"I couldn't even put my arm around her shoulders," he whispered despairingly to nobody in particular. "Vhat am I supposed to do?"

And that was just the problem. The biggest block in Ludwig's way was that essential question—was it right of him to pursue Feli at all?

On one hand, there was no denying that he felt like he'd been sucker-punched in the gut every time she smiled at him, and her touch made him stutter, and her kiss made him feel like he was getting a sneak peek at heaven. On the other hand…what would he do once she changed back? She was going to be a man again, and Germany didn't like the idea of "playing for another team" as he had once had it put to him. He had no problem with his _bruder_'s willingness to dabble in homosexuality, but for himself, he preferred women. Once Feli changed back, he could never look at him the same way. Either way, their easy friendship was over. Because now that Ludwig had seen her looking so beautiful, with eyes that froze him with their beauty just as easily as his glares froze most people with their ferocity, he could never go back to thinking of her as simply an airheaded obligation. Now he had to remember. A thousand punches of her smiles, her laughter, her sincerity, her devotion, her cooking, her kisses, the warmth she stirred to life inside him just by _existing_—they hit him full force every time he saw her.

There was only two ways this could play out. One, Ludwig kept his mouth shut, Feliciana became Feliciano once more, and he carried around these feelings unvoiced like a lead weight on his chest forever. Or two…

Could he do that? Could he ask her to stay a girl? Stay with _him_? What if she said no?

What would he do if she didn't want him? Because right then, he couldn't imagine any other girl ever making him feel as much as she did even in memory. He couldn't say if he was in love with her, but… Germany would never make a decision like that lightly. But he felt like someday, he could decide that he loved her.

He shut off the water, toweled off, and dressed quickly. Rubbing the dampness out of his hair with the towel, he walked to his bedroom, ready to fall asleep.

He made the mistake of glancing out of his window before climbing into bed. Outside the window was the storage shed. As a child, he'd been forbidden to go into it, and when he had, it had changed his life.

Pausing, he hesitated at the bedside for only a moment before striding out down the hall, through the back door and to the shed.

Prussia had raised Ludwig from when he was very young. When he was that age, Ludwig had had no memories of his past, and his brother had told him that it wasn't important. Living was for now, not for the days that had passed, he'd told him. The only thing he needed was tomorrow.

But Gilbert had known his past. Ludwig didn't know why, but Prussia had hidden it from him. He hadn't wanted him to remember—maybe he'd thought it was better for Germany just to have a clean break and move on. Maybe he'd wanted him to be stronger by escaping the ties of his past. That had helped Ludwig in the long run, he had to admit. But the day he finally mustered up the courage to break Gilbert's only rule changed all that.

_Gilbert had either been out partying with his little trio or passed out drunk—Ludwig couldn't remember. Either way, Ludwig had deemed it safe to peek into the shed and finally see what was in there. He'd been curious about it for centuries now._

_When he opened the door, he found boxes and boxes of old, dusty things he recognized somewhere in the back of his mind, where his memories were hidden away behind a door with a big, unbreakable padlock. In the battles of his youth he'd lost the key, and now his memories were forever shut away, just like the contents of this shed._

_And in opening the door to the forbidden shed, he'd opened the door to the past he'd never known._

_He remembered. He opened box after box and pulled out a little velvet robe and cap, a rusty child-sized rapier, a broken crown, a painting, a rosary, so many things that he knew—and he remembered._

_When he'd found a little push broom wedged between two boxes, he'd almost started to tear up. How could he ever have forgotten Italy?_

Germany had never told anyone that he remembered who he used to be, not even Gilbert. He'd already created a new identity—knowing what he had been didn't change who he was now, so he saw no reason to share with anyone what he'd learned.

He picked up the push broom, which was leaning against the wall by the door. It seemed so small in his large, grown-up hands. But it still made overwhelming warmth surge in his chest. He'd cared about her so much. It had been a real shock when he met her the second time and discovered that she was really a guy.

Staring down at that little push broom—such an idiotic gift; Feli hadn't changed a bit—he made up his mind. He had to at least try. The last time he had to leave her had been the last time he cried. He didn't know if he could deal with hurting like that again. Torture, he could deal with; but heartache, he didn't know how to handle.

_I vill try. I must._

Leaning the push broom lovingly against the wall, Ludwig left the shed, carefully shutting the door on the dusty relics of a life that was not his anymore.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry this chapter was kind of a downer... But I personally love Ludwig's sentimentality so I'll forgive him!<strong>

**Ludwig: *glaring but blushing at the same time***

**Me: *pats gelled hair like he's a Nazi puppy dog***

**Anyway, the next chapter will be funny, I promise. I think you'll love it, so be sure and tune in for it!**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: So this website like died yesterday, or this update would have been up then. But I updated my prompts fic and posted a FrancexJoan of Arc oneshot, if anyone's interested in reading those!**

**This chapter is one of my all-time favorites. Well, this one and the next-they go together. If you were one of those people who requested USUK moments, prepare to nosebleed!**

**Disclaimer-I don't own Hetalia, but I probably won't bother telling you guys again because it always slips my mind and this is a fanfiction website anyway.**

**Oh, and I apologize in advance for my lack of expertise about drinking. Sorry. But not really that sorry because alcohol grosses me out.**

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><p>"Ludwig!" Feliciana cried happily. "He's back! Ve~!"<p>

Britt looked up from the magic book she was reading and glanced through the window of the parlor. Sure enough, the imposing German was making his way up the drive in the deepening twilight. He hadn't returned the day before, but Feli had said that he might not—something about an inspection of some sort.

Today had been rather uneventful. Another day of goofing around for Alfred, cooking and doing random household chores for Feli, and useless magical circles for Britt. Although she was frustrated at her lack of progress, Britt was making an effort to at least act like she was handling the transformation with maturity. This morning she'd allowed Feli to braid her blonde hair back and, although she'd turned down a dress, she wore a soft white blouse that was simple but girly with her jeans. She didn't like it, but she'd come to realize that she'd been acting as stubborn and petulant as Alfred had as a child in trying to avoid every part of being a girl. She was what she was, for better or for worse—she might as well be an adult about it, no matter how hard it was.

Plus, it was nice to one-up that stupid American prick. Ever since he'd laughed at her for agreeing to shave her legs, Britt had felt a teensy bit smug about her little girlishnesses. She was almost proud of herself for managing to conquer her phobia of femininity. Shaved legs, painted nails, braided hair. It wasn't actually as bad as she'd feared, once she got over the general nausea of it all.

Alfred was watching TV upside-down, with his legs on the back of the couch where his back should have been, his back where his legs were supposed to go, and his head hanging off the edge. He looked ridiculous—his glasses were slipping off his nose and his face was red from the blood rushing to his head—but he'd been sitting there for an hour without moving.

"Is that actually comfortable?" asked Britt after a minute, exasperated with watching his face redden by the minute.

"Totally, man!" Alfred swung his legs over so he was flipped to the side, laying across the couch. "And it feels like your face is gonna explode after a while!" he laughed.

"I'm fairly certain that's a bad thing," Britt said with a roll of her bottle-green eyes.

"Can I go meet Ludwig at the door?" asked Feli, her hazel eyes flashing happily.

"Whatever makes you happy," Britt said, snapping her book shut. "I'll come too—I've been sitting for far too long for my taste." Standing and setting her book where she had just been seated, she turned to her former little brother. "Are you coming?"

"Of course! I need another bro around here! There's way too much X chromosome going on in this cave for me, man!"

"Just wait until I change back. Then I'll kick all the Y right out of you," she griped. Under other circumstances, she probably would have been more offended, but she was too surprised by the fact that Alfred had a basic grasp of the human genome. For him, that was impressive, even if his country _had_ been the first to map it out.

Feli led the way to the foyer, skipping cheerfully and singing a song about circles under her breath. She wore a yellow sundress today. One of the things that still irritated Britt about femalehood was having to pick out different clothes every day. As a guy, she'd had seven sets of the same military-style outfit—one for each day—and had only had to pick out something different if she had the day off or something. Now every day she had to wear something different. She'd gotten used to the small, top-heavy body and the constant blushing and urge to coo over cute things didn't get to her as much anymore, but Britt just wasn't a morning person and she didn't have the energy to pick out clothes in the morning.

Italy threw open the door just as Ludwig reached the front porch. "Heya Ludwig!" she cried, throwing her arms around him. She was much shorter than him, so she had to get on tiptoe to hug him around his neck, but she looked very content there. Ludwig's cheeks suffused with red as he hugged her back awkwardly with one arm. The other was otherwise occupied, holding a six-pack of his favorite German beer.

Alfred peeked around Feli to get a look at the alcohol. "I hope you're planning to share, German dude!" he cried. "Man, do I need a good stiff drink right now! Today was such a drag and I'm bored!"

"I could use a drink too," Britt said. _Hmm_. Come to think of it, she hadn't really had a drink since she changed. Wine with dinner didn't really count in her mind.

Unexpectedly, Alfred laughed at that. Britt glared at him. "What?"

He shrugged offhandedly. "That was funny! You sounded so much like _you_, but you're a girl now so it's funny."

"What does me being a girl have to do with it?" the Brit demanded hotly, her easily roused temper rearing its ugly head.

"Everyone knows girls can't drink like guys. It's common sense!" Alfred looked at her quizzically, as if he had no idea what had upset her.

What had upset her was the fact that he always seemed to be implying that she'd lost her ability to do _anything_ now that she was a woman, without even thinking about it. "I can still drink better than any stupid Yank!" she snapped.

He was still laughing. "Oh, c'mon! You couldn't drink as good as me even when you were a dude."

"You better watch what you say! I'm the bloody United Kingdom and I was drinking before anybody'd ever even _thought_ of you!"

Blue eyes flashed with mischief. "You wanna bet on that?" he asked with an overconfident smirk that made her want to slap him silly.

"You're on!" she cried. "Ludwig, I'll take that."

Poor Ludwig could only watch helplessly as his beer was confiscated from him and the two blonde nations set off bickering down the hallway towards the kitchen.

o~O~o

_Zose idiots_, Ludwig grumbled to himself. He'd only ended up with two of his beers—the rest had become participants in Alfred and Britt's drinking contest. Between the American and the Brit, he couldn't decide which was stupider—her for thinking she could out-drink Alfred, which she hadn't been able to do for centuries, or him for letting her go through with this when it was only going to end in humiliation.

_No vay am I subjecting myself to zis_. With a long-suffering sigh, the German heaved himself out of his chair and turned toward the door.

"Aww, Ludwig, where're you goin'?" Feli asked, the corners of her lips pointing down in a frown. "I missed you! Cantcha stay with me just a little longer?"

Ludwig debated internally. "Ja, I suppose…But could we do somezing else? I don't vant to vatch zis train vreck." He shot a glare at the two other countries, who were already going at it with the four beer bottles they'd claimed and a bottle of wine in between them. They were halfway through the wine, and Britt already wasn't looking so good.

Feli frowned at the pair. "Si… Hey Germany," she said in a whisper. "I think Britt's going to lose."

"I _know_ she's going to." Steeling his courage, Ludwig put a hand on Feli's shoulder. When he managed it, his chest swelled with proud elation. "Let's go do somezing else."

"Ve~!" Feli agreed, grinning her goofy little grin. "Let's go!"

Feli led the way to the media room, chattering away about her day without him. Ludwig was just content to listen to her, no matter what nonsense she had to say.

o~O~o

Britt forced herself to swallow down the umpteenth glass of wine Alfred poured her. Her vision of the dark purple wine wavered as she raised it to her lips and swallowed.

Alfred raised an eyebrow, seeing her hesitate to bring it to her lips. "You wanna stop? I won't hold it against you."

"No way!" Britt slurred. "I'm going to beat you bloody American or my name's not Arthur Kirkland!"

"It's not," Alfred reminded her, smirking snarkily.

"Don't you grin at me like that!" she ordered, trying to shake a fist at him. "That's still who I am! I'm going to—" she paused, having lost her train of thought. After a minute of fumbling around in her mind, she found it again. "I'm going to change back!"

"Whatever twirls your beanie," he said with a shrug, refilling her glass and his. "I could do this all night."

And he did. Blast it, but he did.

Her vision was blurring almost constantly now. Her hands shook as she tried to open her first beer—they were done with the wine. _At least, I think we are. What's going on again? Oh, right. Beating the bloody American._

"Here, let your hero take care of you," Alfred said, cracking the cap off her beer. "You can stop anytime, you know." He took an easy swig.

"Don't patronize me!" she garbled. "I'm fine! I can hold my lacquer, you hear me?" Just to prove a point, she filled her mouth with Ludwig's beer. It wasn't as graceful as she wanted it to be.

"I know, you've told me like four times." Alfred smiled at her.

"Don't you think you can just get away with saying whatever you want just by smiling at me, you little git. You haven't grown up at all! Still just smile and give me the big blue eyes whenever you're in trouble. Well, not this time! You're not my little brother anymore, remember!" she slurred bitterly.

"Why does this always come up when we're drinking?" Alfred moaned. "Ugh! Gimme a break, dude! Just let it go already!"

"Not in a billion years!" Britt's fingers felt heavy and fumbly as she closed them around her beer and brought it to her mouth. Some didn't make it into her mouth, pouring across her chin. She wiped it on her sleeve angrily. "You think I can forget how you left me? I cared about you!"

Alfred blinked. "Well you had a pretty crappy way of showing it. Face it, taxing the snot out of people isn't exactly a love language."

"That's not the point, dang it!" Drunken anger pulsed through her. "I needed money. I was exploiting everyone, not just you! You think you're special? You think I'd care more about you just because of those stupid beautiful eyes you've got?"

The stupid beautiful eyes in question widened further as a lazily confident smirk grew on his face. "Just cuz you're not affected by my beautiful eyes doesn't mean it was fair."

"Stupid America. Make me forget everything I want to say whenever you look at me like that," she grumbled. "With that idiotic smile that makes me just want to…"

His lazy grin widened as he leaned his cheek on his fist, flicking that one unruly curl out of his eyes with a little toss of his head, and looked at her expectantly. "Go on."

Even drunk, Britt colored. "Shut up! I hate you!"

"Uh-_huh_." His fingers brushed across her cheek, clearing away stray hair that had escaped her braid. "No sweat. Your eyes are pretty too. And I love your smile."

"I never said I loved your smile! I just said it made me want to smack you and… I don't know what else! But what I can't figure out is why I can't think about you anymore without getting butterflies when I hate you so bloody much!" She took another stubborn swig of her beer.

He chuckled. "Yeah, I get that a lot." He touched her face again. Tingles spread out from his touch. "Hey, Britt?"

"What?" she asked crabbily.

"What would you do if I kissed you right now?"

"I'd shoot you," she responded without hesitating.

"Maybe I'll take my chances then," he said with a cheeky grin. "I'm dying to see if I like it, and you can't be a very good shot when you're this drunk."

"I'm not drunk!" she protested. _I've been drunker than this before, at least. I think_.

"Really?" Before she knew what was happening, his gloved hand gripped her chin, preventing her escape, and his soft lips covered hers.

"What the bloody—!…Umm…" Her brain lost what semblance of order was left in it. She couldn't decide if she was horrified or elated. _It's the alcohol. It's gotta be_. Alfred was a surprisingly good kisser.

Alfred pulled back. "What was that about shooting me?"

Black specs swam in front of her view of his face. "Just…lemme go find a shotgun and I'll…make you sorry…" She felt herself falling forward, but she didn't feel herself land—by then she was already gone.

o~O~o

"Moron," Alfred said softly as Britt slumped to the kitchen table, out cold. _Man, is she stupid or what? Even as a guy I could out-drink her. She should know by now that it takes a lot more than a little beer to get a hero drunk._

He rested his chin on his hands. _That was some kiss._ It had been even better than he'd imagined. And he wasn't ashamed to admit to fantasizing about kissing those lips of hers. Usually drunken kisses sucked, but Britt still kissed like a champ even when close to blacking out. The alcohol had made him brave, but he wasn't drunk enough to have exaggerated how awesome that had been in his mind.

"Looks like it's bedtime for you," he said to her limp form, standing with barely a wobble and scooping her up in his arms. "I really hope you don't remember this in the morning or I should probably go hunt for my bulletproof vest."

She was very small and light in his arms, and he wasn't going to lie—she reeked of alcohol. It was a total turn-off. At least she hadn't puked. Still, he tried not to focus on her smell as he carried her off to her room.

Her room was in perfect order except for the spell-books all over the place. It was just like Alfred remembered it. He could recall running in here every time there was a thunderstorm or he had a nightmare, climbing into his big brother's comforting arms and falling back asleep feeling safe and sound.

Now he was a hero, so he didn't need anybody to make him feel safe, but having his arms around Britt still made him feel better than anything else. Just for a different reason. Reluctantly, he laid Britt out on her white canopy bed.

"Look what you do to me, Britt. You make me such a sap," he scolded her, brushing her hair out of her face. "You totally owe me for turning me into such a cheese-ball." Just because he was considerate like that, he undid her braid (which looked seriously uncomfortable to sleep in) for her, then smiled softly down at her sleeping form.

The fond smile suddenly grew into a mischievous one, and Alfred's eyes glowed with an evil idea. He removed his glasses and put them on her bedside table, then took off his bomber jacket and began unbuttoning his shirt. When he'd managed to get all the buttons undone blindly, he took his shirt off, draped it over the bedpost, and lay down in Britt's bed, drawing the bedcovers over Britt and his own still-clad lower half.

_OMG I can't wait to see what her face looks like when she wakes up! This is gonna be so freaking awesome!_ he laughed to himself. Then, just because he wanted to enjoy his last few moments of consciousness with his face _not_ a bloody pulp, he dropped a kiss into Britt's beautiful golden hair before letting sleep claim him.

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><p><strong>AN: So there you have it! A first kiss! Well, I don't know if it counts if one of the participants isn't sober, but still...<strong>

**Alfred: OF COURSE it counts! She was totally into it!**

**Me: You sound like Francis... *scoots away***

**On another note, only a week till World Series comes out on dub! SQUEE!**

**In the meantime, leave me a review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: I just realized how close we are to the end D: It's so sad! My first Hetalia fanfic ever is almost ending. I'm so happy you guys have stuck with me this long, though! I really appreciate all your comments and favorites and alerts! Some of you have even made me one of your favorite authors, and I never expected that, ever!**

**You guys are the best :D If I could I'd hug each and every one of you :3 -end sappy moment-**

**Now on to the chapter! Sorry if you guys were looking forward to a GerIta moment-for now we're focusing on Britt and Alfred. The next few chapters will be dedicated to them, but then you'll get a GerIta moment that will totally knock your socks off, promise!**

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><p><em>The light. Oh, for the love of all things holy make it stop!<em>

Even before Britt opened her eyes the morning sun was blindingly bright. Moaning in pain, she clenched her eyes shut, trying not to scream bloody murder from the pain of her splitting hangover headache.

She lifted her arm and placed her wrist across her eyes in an effort to block out the ungodly sun. It took her a second to realize that her elbow was touching something.

Curiosity outweighed pain. Laboriously Britt forced her eyes open.

Choking on several pungent curses from the pain of doing so, Britt looked up at the horridly bright ceiling. It spun a teensy bit before settling back where it should be.

_Sit up_, she ordered herself mercilessly. _Come on! You were asking for this one_. Weakly, she managed to struggle into a sitting position.

Immediately she noticed something that shouldn't have been there on the footboard. It was a man's white button-down shirt. _Huh. I don't remember pulling out a shirt_… But then she realized it was too big to be hers, even for her men's clothes.

In fact, she could have sworn it was Alfred's. Hadn't he been wearing it last night?

And his ridiculous bomber jacket. It was at the foot of the bed.

A horrible suspicion wormed its way into her mind. _No way_…

Almost afraid to look, she turned her head to the side.

And screamed so hard that she thought her head might split in half.

She jumped three feet in the air and landed hard on her butt on the floor, then scrambled backwards like a crab, desperate to escape the horror in her bed.

It was Alfred.

And he was _naked_.

"No! I _didn't_! Not even if I was _drunk_! There's _no_ way I'd ever sleep with YOU!" Britt howled her denial like a mantra, as if it could rewind to the past and rewrite her drunken actions. But to her horror, somewhere in her aching brain, she could remember the feel of his lips on hers, slow and undemanding but so ardent at the same time.

Alfred sat up, leaning on an elbow, putting all his impressive muscles on display. He knuckled his eyelids, yawning, before opening his sleepy blue eyes. They were even bluer than usual, not hidden by his glasses. "Aww, Britt, it's so early. Come back to bed."

"NOT IN A BILLION YEARS!" Britt wanted to claw her brains out. Between her hangover and the terror, it already felt like her brains were being ripped to shreds. "I _couldn't_ have! There's no way I… I mean…" She stared in horror down at her hands. Had she really done it? If she had, she'd never forgive herself.

Then she noticed something odd. If she and Alfred had…she couldn't even make herself think it! If she and Alfred had done something _unspeakable_, then why was she wearing all her clothes?

She looked up at Alfred. "What…"

The blonde American started laughing uncontrollably, collapsing onto the bed. "OMG! You totally bought it! I didn't think you'd believe it that long!" He threw the blanket off of his lower half to reveal that it was still clothed. She'd only thought that he was naked because she'd only been able to see his bare torso above the blanket.

For a moment she could only feel a flood of relief. The memory of that kiss had just been her imagination after all! Then she became so furious that she was literally shaking and her vision was tinged with red. "YOU—YOU—" Britt threw herself at the man, navy fingernails ripping at whatever skin she could find.

Still chuckling, Alfred caught her hands before they could do any serious damage to him, just like the first day. Her hangover was seriously slowing her down. Not to mention she'd seen him throw a bison around like it was a stuffed toy when he was only a child. "Sorry! I just couldn't resist! You looked so innocent and gullible laying there like that!"

"I AM GOING TO STAB YOU UNTIL YOU STOP MOVING, YOU SLIMY WORTHLESS GIT!" Britt roared, struggling, throwing her elbows out and kicking at him and lashing out with anything she could. Then a wave of nausea hit her as the pain from her headache caught up with her. "OW! ALFRED!" She swore at him violently. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

"You're hurting yourself," America chided her, chuckling. Gently, mindful of her pounding head, he pushed her over to her side of the bed and held her there. "Hey!" he cried as she kicked him in the thigh (she'd been aiming higher but missed). "Chill! Ow! Dude, cut it out! I'm not gonna do anything to you, Scout's Honor! _OW_! Okay, okay, fine, would it make you feel better if I put my shirt on? "

She stopped kicking, too exhausted and in too much pain from her hangover to keep trying to beat him into a bloody smear. "Yes," she said weakly.

"Kay, hang on a sec." He released her hands, plucked his shirt off the bedpost, and tugged it on. Before he did the buttons, he reached over Britt to her bedside table, making her tense up and poise to attack before she realized he was just getting his glasses.

He smirked at her reaction. "I can't do up buttons without them anymore. My eyesight has gotten worse since I first got glasses, believe it or not."

"They were pretty bad the first time around." Britain dragged the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes so she wouldn't notice Alfred's six-pack, which she'd been too busy screaming or trying to kill him to notice before. In fact, everything about him was the hard lines of smooth muscles. Not a trace of fat, surprisingly. Her heartbeat roared in her ears—from the headache, of course.

Luckily Alfred didn't notice the guilty glances at his bare chest that she stole against her will. He was too busy buttoning the shirt up.

Britt was _not_ disappointed when he finished, leaving the top two buttons and his cuffs undone.

"So how ya feelin', champ?" he asked, brushing his fingers through her hair.

She slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me! Ow," she whimpered, retreating under the blankets. "Bloody sun."

Alfred laughed. How was he so bloody _happy_ all the time? It was obnoxious. _Doesn't he have any hangover at ALL? _she wondered despairingly. If he'd been even the least bit hung over, it would have made her defeat more bearable. "I'll close the windows. D'ya want to go find some tea or something for your head?"

"Yes." Reluctantly Britt dragged herself out of bed and to the doorway.

Trotting on her heels like a dog was America. Of course. "You okay?" he asked, grabbing her elbow to steady her as she teetered a little on her feet.

"I'm fine," she snapped, jerking her arm out of his grasp.

He took the hint and managed to shut up for once. Mostly. He hummed "America the Beautiful" as they made their way to the kitchen, but it was the quietest she'd seen him in days.

_He's actually trying to help me_, Britt realized with a shock. _Does he feel guilty for having that contest with me? Moron. He shouldn't feel bad. I was the one who had to prove a point so desperately._

_Good job with that, by the way_, she said bitingly to herself. _All you proved is that your drinking ability's worse than ever and you're terrified of loving Alfred_.

Well. Maybe that was a little strong—_there's no earthly way I'll ever fall for that burger-stuffing psychomaniac!_ But she was terrified of _him_ loving _her_. Whenever Alfred cared about something, he didn't ever give up on it. She'd learned that in 1776. His freedom had been his all-consuming passion; he'd have rather died than returned to being her little brother. Even now he was so proud of his democracy—even though he'd achieved his goal, the feeling had never faded. If he truly decided he was in love with her, she'd never have a moment's peace.

When they got to the kitchen, Britt immediately threw open the medicine cabinet and popped an aspirin into her mouth as eagerly as if it was candy. She swallowed it dry, cringing as it went down painfully.

Alfred was gracelessly filling the teapot. "Umm…can you show me how to do this?" Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, he admitted, "I'm not too sure I remember right cuz we don't really drink tea back home."

Britt rolled her eyes. "You're too busy guzzling Coke. Bunch of diabetic little…" She went off a little, ranting about Americans as she finished filling the teapot the appropriate amount.

Alfred smiled softly at her. "Yeah, you're probably right," he said, passing her the box of teabags.

Masking her shock, Britain set the teapot on the burner and selected her favorite flavor. Alfred had never admitted to being a fatso before.

"But yo! Think of it like this! We get to be like kids forever!" Alfred said happily, opening the refrigerator and pouring himself a glass of the aforementioned brown soda. Britt wrinkled her nose at it.

"That would certainly explain your hero complex," she sniffed.

His brows drew together over bespectacled blue eyes. "Wanting to protect everyone doesn't make me a kid," he said.

"It's selfish, that's what it is," Britt snapped. "Which _is_ childish."

"How is it selfish? I'm one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet." He grinned proudly.

"Which is why you tricked me into thinking I'd slept with you when I was stone drunk," Britt finished sarcastically.

"Aw, lighten up! It was friggin hilarious and you know it!" His omnipresent smirk widened. "Plus, you know you've been dying to get some of this," he added mischievously.

"In your dreams, you self-righteous twit!" England dropped the tea bag into the kettle to hide her blush, furiously shoving down the imagined memory of kissing him. Even though she knew it hadn't been real, it was still mortifying to think about.

He took a sip of his Coke, his impish blue eyes following her over the rim of his glass. "Every night!" he affirmed cheerfully.

Britt almost dropped the teakettle. _Blimey, let him be joking_, she begged internally.

Fortunately, Alfred didn't pursue _that_. Instead he drank the last of his Coke and set the glass in the sink with a sigh. "That hit the spot!"

"It's too early to be drinking that crap," Britt grumbled.

"You know what your problem is? You still act like my mom."

Whirling on her heel to face him, Britt cried indignantly, "I DO WHAT?"

"You act like my mother!" Alfred shouted back, making her moan and clutch her head as a spike of pain stabbed into it. "Oops, sorry. You act like my mom," he said in a lower voice. "You're always telling me what to do and you criticize me all the time. Why do you do that?"

_It's true_, she realized. Flushing, she turned back to her tea. "I don't know. You were my little brother. I can't really forget that. Especially when you turned out so…like you are."

He snickered. "So you have where-did-I-go-wrong conniptions every time I drink Coke?"

"It's not my fault you like drinking liquid sugar," she snapped. "But I wonder if maybe it's my fault you're so arrogant and stuck up."

"Well, you _are_ pretty stuffy," he mused, making Britt stiffen with annoyance.

"Stuffy is different than arrogant," she shot back. "You think you can just walk in and take control and do whatever the heck you want because you're America!"

"And I'm the hero!" he finished for her. "Yeah, so what?"

"Well, you can't!"

"Why not? Someone has to, and it sure as heck ain't gonna be you! You spend half of every world meeting trying to strangle Francy-pants!"

"He _should_ be strangled," she groused, pouring out a cup of tea. "And I don't really care who's in charge, as long as it isn't you, stupid Alfred!"

"This is all because you still think of me as a kid, you know?" he asked. "That's why you won't let me be in charge of anything or eat what I want or anything! Because you still think of me as the little tot you picked up off the New World!"

"So what?" she asked, setting the teapot back down on the burner with a sharp click. "What if I think of you as a child? You certainly act like one—you just admitted it!"

"I just meant that I get to have fun. It's no fun to be as stuffy as you are," he said. He paced closer to her. One pace. Two. "I can be grown-up and still have fun. Maybe no one takes me seriously because of it, but who cares? I'm still a world superpower." He smiled widely at the word choice. "But you know what?"

Britt felt the back of the counter hit her hips. Alfred was backing her into a corner. Wide-eyed, she tried to cringe back into the small space, away from his approach. "I don't care! Get away! You're being creepy!"

"I'm not being creepy!" he protested.

Nowhere left to run. Britt could only sit there, helpless, as Alfred's hands came to rest on the counter at either side of her, trapping her there.

"You're running away, and I'm just trying to talk to you. That isn't very heroic," he admonished, his voice uncharacteristically volume-controlled and husky. Britt felt very small next to him, having to tilt her chin up to look him in his bespectacled blue eyes. They were almost hypnotic when he was serious, and she'd never seen him this serious before.

He leaned down to look her in the eyes. Their faces were only a few inches away from each other's. "I want you to stop treating me like a kid. I want you to see me for what I am. I'm a man now, Britt. I'm not your little brother. And you've got to be straight with yourself too—you're a chick. Stop running away just cuz you don't want to see something. Trust me, I know. Being blind sucks. Seeing might suck too, but you're always better off that way."

Suddenly the imagined memory of kissing Alfred was very strong. His eyes searched hers intently, and his face was very close to hers. A swooping sensation in her stomach made it very hard to think.

If the world had ended right then, Britt might not have noticed.

She scrambled for something, anything, to say to get him to go away. The swooping in her stomach was terrifying. "I—I… My head hurts."

Alfred stared at her with an unreadable expression for a moment. The he spoke slowly. "Of course. Sorry." Straightening, he stepped away.

Britt felt an unexpected sense of disappointment. She crushed the emotion viciously.

"I'm gonna go to my place today. Tony wants me to buy him a new video game, and we're totally beating it the day it comes out like bosses! Peace out!" he said cheerfully as he left.

Forced cheerfulness. He may not realize it, but Britt always knew when he was forcing something. He wasn't very good at hiding things.

Exhaustion gripped her unexpectedly. The pounding of her head returned full force. She sank down to the floor with her back to the counter.

_So that whole thing this morning. He just wanted me to think of him like a man._ She huffed. _What a childish way to go about that_. _He's such a moron! Even if I do think of him like a man, I'll never be able to respect him when he is the way he is. Or love him, if that's what he's after_, she tacked on as a bitter afterthought.

Still… He had seemed to be maturing. For once, he'd been serious. He'd showed concern for her.

The ghost of his lips lingered on hers. Even though it had just been her imagination, that memory was swiftly becoming her guilty pleasure.

Shaking, she grabbed her mug of tea and poured it scalding down her throat, burning away the memory.

_I'll NEVER love that moron. Ever_.

But Britt had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Because if magic had taught her anything, it was that there were no such things as impossibilities.

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><p><strong>AN: Me: BRITT! YOU LOVE HIM!<strong>

**Britt: SHUT UP! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, TELLING ME WHAT I "FEEL"?**

**Me: Um, the author? I could make you fall for Russia if I wanted. Or France! *evil cackle***

**Britt: *pales* What witchery is this? *runs off***

**Heehee! I'm so evil xD Even though I very much dislike FrUK... And Russia's just creepy with anyone... o_O**

**Review everyone! My goal is to get at least 120 reviews before this fic ends, so everyone please help me get there!**

**Oh, and the Franada vs. PruCan poll on my profile is coming down within the next week. If you haven't voted yet, do! You can help affect the outcome of my next fic!**

**Until next time!**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Welcome back to For Better or For Worse, my good people! :D A few announcements: my new Franada/Prucan fic is now up! Please give it a little look-see if you've got the time. And if anyone cares, I've finished my actual book. I'm sending it off to publishers now! :D I'm excited!**

**But you came here to read Hetalia fanfiction, so here you go!**

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><p>That morning marked three days until the world meeting. Disconcerted by the events of that day, Britt threw all her efforts into creating her new circle. Any hope she had of somehow managing to transmute herself and Feli back to normal before the world meeting had been dashed by now, but now she felt like she was racing against the clock even more. If she didn't do the transmutation before Alfred came out and admitted that he was in love with her, she'd have to live with him pursuing her until one of their nations collapsed. He was that dedicated. Maybe her turning back into a man would be enough to dissuade him from that.<p>

She worked tirelessly, ceaselessly. She searched book after book for clues; she tried pattern after pattern; she went through box after box of chalk and candle after candle. Sometimes her guests visited her. Feli, she would actually make an effort to talk to. Even though she was a little much to handle at times, she meant well, and she genuinely wanted to be friends with Britt. Ludwig always came at Feli's side. He was like a huge blond human handbag—a constant presence shadowing the spunky Italian everywhere. Britt couldn't help but notice the way they looked at each other, but they themselves seemed oblivious to it. Although how Ludwig missed Feli's blatantly melting adoring looks was beyond Britt's ability to comprehend.

America, she ignored. Well, as well as she could. He sometimes just refused to be ignored and she had to scream at him. Luckily, he didn't make any more passes at her. Instead he made small talk about how things were at his house, their new technological advances, the new video game he'd bought for Tony, the state of their stock market, and things like that. It made Britt feel guilty. She had no idea what was going on in her own nation right now because she'd refused to see any of the people who would normally give her updates. Just yesterday, she'd called to cancel meeting the Queen for tea. Although she had an instinctive feel for the state of the UK, the specifics were absolute mysteries to her right now. She was determined to keep her gender switch hushed up as long as possible, and that meant cancelling all her normal appointments until the world meeting. If it had been possible, she would have cancelled on that too—but the only excuse for a country missing a world meeting was…well, death. Besides, she couldn't hide forever. She would for as long as she was able, but it wouldn't last.

As hard as she tried not to think about him, Alfred tended to be on the forefront of her mind as she worked. She couldn't shake the feeling that he was somehow connected to her new circle, as revolting as that prospect was.

"Ve~, Britt," drawled Feli as she creaked open the door.

"Oh, hello, Feli," Britt said absentmindedly. "Come in." She waved the younger country inside with an arm covered to the elbow in chalk.

For once, Feli was alone. She wore a pale pink dress, which made Britt cringe with its girlishness, and her hair was tucked back with a headband.

"Where's Germany?" Britt asked absently, drawing a pentagon connecting the points of the five-pointed star she'd just sketched.

"He's in the dining room," Feli said. "I made a big special dinner, since this is the last night before the world meeting!"

Britt's bottle-green eyes winced shut. She'd been trying to forget that.

Feli looked genuinely concerned. "Britt, come eat dinner with us! You haven't eaten for a long time and that's bad for you, ve~!"

Standing slowly, Britt brushed the chips of stone from her knees and considered. On one hand, if she went to dinner, he'd have to talk to Alfred. But she _was_ stressed out, exhausted, and starving, although she hadn't realized it until just now when she took stock of her aching body for the first time in a while. She needed a break.

"Alright, then," Britt sighed. "Let me go tidy up a bit and I'll be right there."

"Ve~!" Feli agreed happily.

A little weak from sitting on the floor so long, Britt hobbled to her bathroom. She washed her arms and face clean of the chalk and changed into a half-sleeved white dress that went halfway down her calves, then awkwardly pulled her hair back into a ponytail. It looked messier than anything Feli would have done, and it took her a minute or two to figure out the rubber band she was supposed to use to put it up, but she managed.

When she arrived in the dining room, Ludwig and Alfred were there, but Feli wasn't. Avoiding eye contact with a certain obnoxious American, Britt asked Ludwig, "Where's Feli?"

"In ze kitchen, finishing up dinner," Germany said, tugging on the fingers of his gloves to remove them.

"I'll go help," Britt said hurriedly, making a hasty getaway into her kitchen before Alfred could say anything to her.

The kitchen was a cloud of warm, tasty pasta scents. Feli was at the heart of it, opening up the cabinets. Each one's contents were thoroughly perused, then Italy would shake her head in dissatisfaction and shut it again, only to repeat the process with the next.

"Can I help you with something, mate?" asked Britain, careful to keep her white sleeves from trailing through any pasta sauce she might encounter.

Feli looked up at her. "Ve~. I was just looking around to see if you had any special plates or anything we could use, since this is a special dinner! Do you have anything like that?"

"Oh, yes, I have a special set I reserve for dinner parties and things like that," Britt said. "It's in the china cabinet; should I go fetch it?"

"Si! _Grazie_!" Feli cried. "I'll finish everything up for when you get back!"

Britt walked down the hallway to where she kept her fine china. The china cabinet was a little dusty—Feliciana had been doing housework since they transformed (for some inexplicable reason, she seemed to enjoy it) but Britt couldn't expect her to see how important it was to keep a china cabinet well dusted. It was a display case, for heaven's sake! Why would you want to put something on display if it was dusty?

Humming tunelessly to herself to drum out everything trying to pry its way into her head, she stacked four bowls and four plates on the table part of the cabinet. This set was almost a century old. The frog had given them to her. As much as she loathed him, they were nice, and she was proud of the set.

The humming wasn't working as well as she would have liked. All the stress she was going through felt like it was standing on tiptoe on the precipice of her sanity. She couldn't figure out the circle, no matter how hard she tried. The world meeting was tomorrow, and all her fellow countries would laugh at her. Or worse, not take her seriously. Francis was going to violate her—no explanation necessary for that one. Alfred was stupid—ditto. Alfred was quite possibly in love with her, and he wouldn't get out of her head no matter how much she hated him.

She picked up the stack of tableware. In many ways, her new body was still unfamiliar to her—she thought that the load would be light. Instead, it was unexpectedly heavy. Too heavy. It slipped right through her fingers and shattered into a million pieces on the floor.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. For a moment, Britt just stood there staring at the remains of her beautiful china, quivering, an indistinguishable knot of emotions inside her.

With a howl that had been building in her chest ever since she opened her eyes as a female, she snatched a plate from the display case and threw it to the floor. And then another. And another. She smashed them all, on the walls, on the floor, on the case itself. Every piece was a frustration; each one wore the face of one of her torments. She smashed them to dust with a wordless howl of the rage she couldn't contain any longer.

Only once she'd destroyed the whole set did she realize what she'd done. She'd just ruined a priceless antique china set, a gift from a friend. All the fury leached out of her at once, and she sank to her knees among the ruins of Francis' gift.

Irrationally she found herself trying to press the pieces back together. "If I had a circle I could do this," she growled as she shoved the shards of porcelain together. "Burn you, just fix!" Her knuckles turned white on the shards and hot blood pooled in her palms from the punctures she made clenching the ragged edges. "Just go back to how you were! Is that too much to ask?" The white china, the edges stained red with Britt's blood, blurred before her eyes as wetness dropped onto them.

"Britt, what happened? I heard screaming and I thought you could use a hero…" Alfred stopped and stared, appalled, at the wreckage. "Jeez… What happened?"

"They won't go back together," Britt sobbed hopelessly. "I can't put—them back—together!"

"England, you're bleeding." Alfred crunched through the broken china to her side and gathered her gently into his arms, lifting her clear of the shards of porcelain.

Britt couldn't think of anything to do but let him carry her to the other side of the hall. She was still crying when Alfred set her on the floor, here clear of any debris, and pried the bloodied shards of china from her hands. He tossed them behind him without looking to see where they fell, his blue eyes locked on her tearful green ones, and then put his strong arms back around her.

Britain's bleeding hands locked on his collar without her permission as she began to cry even harder, bawling into his shirt. She didn't know why, but something inside her just fell apart at his touch.

Alfred, for once, didn't say anything. He just held her and rocked her gently, stroking her hair and occasionally pressing a warm, gentle kiss to the crown of her head when he thought she wouldn't notice.

_Wait… No… I don't want him to kiss me…_

But she didn't stop him—she was too busy bawling her eyes out. So she let him kiss her, pretending she didn't notice, until her tears had dried and her sobs were just little hiccups.

"It's going to be okay, Britt. Your hero's going to take care of you. Everything's going to be alright."

"I don't need you to take care of me," she said venomously. Well, as venomously as she could with her lips trembling and tears still in her voice.

"Whatever you say." His lips touched her hair so softly she hardly felt it.

No. This had to stop before it got out of hand. She pushed herself out of his lap, leaving bloody handprints on his already ruined shirt. The front of him was entirely smeared with blood from her hands and knees and tears from her eyes.

For some reason, the sight of him sitting there like that, with her blood on his shirt and concern in his eyes, still holding out his arms for her as if she would crawl back into his embrace, something shifted inside her. No one had ever looked at her like he was now, with so much unrestrained concern and tenderness and…love.

Britt scrambled to her feet and fled back to her library, her heart pounding viciously against her chest. Slamming the door, she put her back to it and sank to the floor, burying her head in her ruined knees. _Can't love him, can't, can't, can't! I'm a man, he's my little brother, he's a child! Can't love him. Just can't. Don't you DARE fall for him! _she screamed at herself internally. Because that shift in her heart scared her worse than anything. It was like something had fallen off a shelf inside her, and for the life of her, she could not determine what it had been. But it had been important, she knew that for sure. Already she could feel a slight change in the balance of who she was.

_Who I am…_

_That's it!_

Britt wrapped her hands quickly in a pair of rags to protect the punctures in them from getting infected, snatched a stick of chalk from the floor, and drew a circle on the flagstones. Then she knelt inside of it and did a good deal of thinking.

Last time she'd begun to dabble in magic, she'd had a firm grasp of who she was. Of course she had—she'd grown up with herself! But this time, she was still taking a shot in the dark when it came to her own personality. So she made herself do a thorough soul searching and dredge up everything she knew about herself.

Some of it was easy. She was the personification of the United Kingdom, she was female, she saw magical creatures, she did magic, she used to be a pirate, she'd raised America, she was an ex-Ally, she'd been fighting with France since before she could remember… The list went on and on. A lot of it was hard to admit, though—like her prickliness, her bad cooking, her stubbornness and pride. Her new weakness and mood swings and love for cute things. Her conflicted feelings for her foster brother. But she did it, and was strangely drained once she was sure she'd searched out all she knew about herself.

And then she began to draw it all out in the circle.

The circle blossomed with everything that was Britt. Then, when she was pretty sure that it was all there, she placed her hands on the floor before her and sought the deep place where her magic was.

The circle began to glow in anticipation. And that something inside her clicked.

Britt's eyes flew wide. It was working! She began to chant—a simple summoning. Within a moment, something appeared inside the circle, just between her two hands.

It was an apple. Just a plain old apple from the orchards outside, but it made Britt give a whoop of elation. Snatching up the apple, she bolted to her feet and danced a little victory dance. "I did it! I did it! Take that, you bloody American twit! I did it!" She laughed joyfully and took off running out of the library and down the hall to the parlor to find her guests.

"America! Italy! Germany!" cried Britt as she ran headlong down the hallway. She burst into the room, panting and her cheeks almost split by her grin.

Feliciana, Ludwig, and Alfred looked startled by her appearance. Not only was she grinning fit to crack her face, but she was also still smeared with blood from her little episode with the china. She was probably a pretty gruesome sight.

"Guess what? I did it!" She shook the apple at them exuberantly. "I did it! I did it! I have a new circle! I'll be able to change us back soon, Feli!"

Feli looked shocked for a moment before she broke into a grin. "Ve~! I'm so happy!" The two girls began to chatter away excitedly about when they could expect to change back.

Alfred, in a fresh shirt, was unnaturally quiet and Ludwig looked like he'd just bitten into a week-old plum tart. "How soon could you do it?" asked Alfred, more subdued than she'd ever seen him.

"Maybe in as little as another week or two," Britt replied, her eyes flashing happily as she turned to look at him. "Can you believe it? I did it!"

America forced a smile. "I'd always known you would."

"So did I!" she said smugly. "Well, I'm off to bed! World meeting tomorrow, you know, chaps!" And with that she went off to her room, not even caring that she was skipping.

o~O~o

"A week?" Alfred looked down at his gloved hands. He felt like he'd just been socked in the gut. With Ivan's pipe. "I can't believe they're going to change back in just a week…" _And here I thought I had all the time in the world… _He sat down heavily on the couch next to Ludwig. Feli had left just a second ago after giving both of them a cheerful "_Buona notte_!" and kissing Ludwig on both cheeks.

Ludwig was still red from Feli's kisses, but he looked totally serious. "Zat's not enough time," he said softly. "Not enough at all."

"I feel ya," Alfred said, just as seriously for once in his life. "We've gotta do something."

"Do vhat?" Ludwig asked. He looked hopeless. "Vhat are ve supposed to do? Zey're going to change back no matter vhat ve say or do."

Alfred flung a hand out in frustration. "Well we have to do _something_! We can't just let them do it without a fight! I think I might seriously be in love with that pompous British jerk and I'd really prefer being straight to the alternative!" And he really thought he might be in love with her. Because seeing her there, crying and bleeding on the floor… That had hurt him worse than the time she burnt down the White House and the Boston Massacre put together. Plus, he'd been dreaming about that kiss she couldn't remember, and fantasizing about giving her one she would.

"And I'm in love with Feliciana," Ludwig admitted, his cheeks reddening. "If you tell her, I'll shoot you," he added quickly, throwing in a blue-laser glare for emphasis.

"So we're partners in crime then!" exclaimed Alfred, pumping a fist into the air. "Operation Don't-Let-Britt-And-Feli-Turn-Back-Into-Guys-Even-If-All-Heck-Breaks-Loose-At-The-World-Meeting-Tomorrow-Or-Any-Other-Time-In-The-Forseeable-Future is a go!"

"Ja," Ludwig said uncertainly, looking like he'd rather do anything else than team up with Alfred. Which was silly, because if he wanted anybody on his side, it should be the hero! "I guess ve have to try…"

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><p><strong>AN: Well... That was kinda... Depressing... Britt finally had her little freak-out moment xD I was looking forward to it, actually.<strong>

**Britt: I have a right to a freak-out when I want it!**

**Me: ...Well, you kinda threw a temper tantrum like you were five...**

**Britt: SHUT UP YOU SON OF A TART!**

**Me: ...I'm a girl...**

**PS If you're GerIta fans, tune in for the next chapter for sure!**

**Review please! :D**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Hello people! Sorry for the late update... I actually had stuff to do this weekend, so I didn't get to update on Saturday like I'd planned. But anyway, Happy Chinese New Year! *glomps China* Yao even gets mentioned (VERY briefly, this chapter has only Italy and Germany in it) in honor of this day. GO YEAR OF HATORI (if anyone's into Fruits Basket :P)**

**I'd like to clear something up before we get started though, because I understand that some people were offended that America and Germany didn't seem like they'd still love Britain and Italy as men. That's not true, and if I implied that I'm sorry. America would just prefer to be straight, and Germany wouldn't know how to express his love to Italy if he was a man. They'd both still love them just the same, though.**

**Well, now that that's out of the way, on to the (short [I apologize]) chapter!**

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><p><em>A veek… A VEEK…<em> Ludwig shook his head in despair. No way was he going to be able to get up the courage to confess to Feli in just a week. He'd thought he'd have more time than that… At least long enough to take her out a few times. Ease into it. But now he was so short on time. The faster Britain hurtled towards a breakthrough in her magical abilities, the closer Ludwig came to losing Feliciana forever. Well, at least losing the chance of ever being able to be with her. He hardly knew how to romance women, much less men!

Thunder cracked outside the window and lightning flashed in spidery veins of light across the sky as Germany climbed into bed. Rain had just started to fall a moment ago. It was fitting to his mood—he was just as gloomy.

He fell asleep quickly—soldiers' habits died hard. He could fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. That came in handy tonight; he didn't want to think about the daunting task before him. Why was it so hard to just say those three little words? Somehow he'd rather have taken on all five Allies single-handedly than force himself to say those words to Feli in just under seven days. If she laughed… If she said she didn't care about him like that… How could he ever face his first and best friend ever again?

When he fell asleep, he tumbled headlong into a nightmare about his _bruder_ harassing Italy at the world meeting, evading all Ludwig's attempts to pound him until his "awesome looks" were permanently ruined.

He woke up to a particularly loud thunderclap. It was still raining, and the thunder and lightning had only grown more intense. Every couple minutes, a flash of stark white light would illuminate the room and another _BOOM_ would reverberate through the house not a moment behind. The storm was close enough to the house to make Ludwig nervous.

Abruptly he noticed something quivering against his leg under the covers. He threw back the blanket to find Feliciana curled into a ball there next to him. She wore a long pale pink nightgown and her hazel eyes were wide and frightened.

Germany instantly turned violently red. "Feli! Vhat in _Gott's_ name are you doing here?" he demanded at a shout, recoiling to the other side of the bed as if he'd just found a viper there instead of the girl he was in love with.

"The storm is so scary, Ludwig," Feli whimpered, crawling imploringly toward him. "Can I sleep here with you? _Per favore_? You won't even know I'm here, I promise!"

He was so aware of her presence there that it was almost laughable. "_Nien_! You can't just come into my room vizout asking!"

She frowned, looking hurt. "But… When I was a man, you always let me sleep with you! Why can't I sleep with you now?"

The double meaning of that was painfully obvious to Ludwig. Couldn't she hear herself? At least she hadn't come wearing usual Italian sleeping attire. Which was nothing but one's skin. "It's different now zat you're a voman!"

"But… Why?" Her lower lip began to tremble. "Don't you like me anymore, Germany?"

_Oh, Feli, you're so slow!_ he groaned internally. "No, Italy, of course I like you."

"Then why can't I stay with you?" she asked. Her eyes were starting to water, which made Ludwig panic slightly. If she started crying, he had no idea how he was going to deal with it. Usually he just whacked her over the head and told her to stop her blubbering, but if he was the one who made her cry…

Suddenly lightning illuminated the room in flat white light, followed almost immediately by a thunderclap that rattled the windowpanes. Italy's tearful eyes flew wide in fright, and she threw herself at Ludwig, locking her arms around him and burying her face in his chest.

The impact was enough to knock him backwards a little. His arms instinctively went around Feli, holding her to his body.

She sobbed into his chest, her arms tight around him. "It's so scary! Don't send me away," she wailed. "_Per favore_! Please don't make me be alone!"

Ludwig had been cruel in his past. But he wasn't capable of the cruelty it would take to send Feliciana away when she was like this. "Shh, it's okay," he soothed awkwardly, running a hand along her hair. It was even softer than he remembered. "Shh. Don't cry, _liebling_. I'll let you stay. Just don't cry."

Feliciana scrubbed a fat tear from the corner of her eye, gazing up at Germany. "Really? You will?"

"Ja. Just stop crying, okay? Ve'll never get to sleep if you're sobbing all night."

_How in the vorld does she smile like zat? She vas just bawling!_ But sure enough, her smile was so huge it made his cheeks hurt to look at it. "_Grazie_, Ludwig!"

"Ja, ja. Lie down now," he said, motioning to the other side of the bed.

Feli snuggled down contentedly in the pillows. "_Buona notte_!" she said, already almost asleep. Although for her, that had nothing to do with soldier's instincts—it was just laziness.

Ludwig had almost fallen asleep himself, after a desperate battle with questionable victory to convince himself that the most beautiful nation in the world was _not_ in his bed. Then a little voice piped up next to him.

"Ve~, Ludwig? What does 'leebly' mean?"

"Leebly?" He glanced at her. "Where did you hear that?"

"You just called me that, just a minute ago. When I was crying because of the storm."

Oh. Not leebly, _liebling_. Ludwig flushed. Had he really called her that? It must have slipped out.

"Oh… Nozing. Don't vorry about it." The lie was obvious in his voice.

"Aww, you won't tell me? Ve~, I'll just have to ask Prussia at the world meeting tomorrow!"

Ludwig felt like a shot of ice had just been injected into his spine. _Gott, East vould never let me live zat down! _"It's just a German pet name," he said evasively.

"Oh! What does it mean?" Feli asked brightly, completely oblivious to the torment she was putting Ludwig through.

Cursing all the gods he could name for their love of irony, Ludwig forced himself to say, "It means 'sveetheart' or 'darling'… Or 'love.'" The last two words came out small and choked, half-strangled. His throat was already crowded, with his heart in there.

There was a pause that seemed to last for a small eternity. Finally, Feliciana asked, "Love?"

Ludwig swallowed thickly past his heart. "Ja."

"You called me love?"

"…Ja."

A small, warm hand found Ludwig's under the covers. As Feli's fingers slid through his, he wondered how he could kill a man without skipping a beat but still go stiff and brainless at her touch.

"Do you love me, Ludwig?" asked Feli softly. "Is that why you called me that?"

His fingers tightened on hers. "…Ja."

Her thumb traced over each of his knuckles. "So… Like friends? Or like a girlfriend?"

"Like… How do you love me?" he asked, dodging her question.

"I love you lots and lots, Ludwig. I love you more since I became a girl." The admission took no effort at all for her, but he was still sweating and having a hard time making his heart behave.

"The same for me… Since you became a girl, I've loved you differently," he said softly.

For a long moment, they were silent. The only sound was the storm outside.

Then Feli released Ludwig's hand. The older nation was paralyzed for a moment as pain radiated outward from his heart, sending a shockwave of agony through his chest.

The bed creaked as Feli moved. But to his surprise, she didn't move away—she moved towards him, slipping under his arm and tucking herself into his side.

She nuzzled into his chest. "_Ti amo_, Ludwig."

His heart skipped a beat, then rose exultantly. "_Ich liebe dich_, Feli."

"So, when I kissed you because you pulled my curl, did you like it?" she asked after a moment.

"Very much," he admitted, grateful for the darkness that hid the blush on his face.

Feli grinned widely. "Ve~? You did? I thought you were mad, because you held me off."

"_Nein_, it vasn't zat. I vas confused." Hesitantly, he tightened his arm around her shoulders. "It vasn't because I didn't like it."

"In that case… Will you kiss me, Ludwig?"

"Erm." Ludwig turned scarlet. "Okay." They sat up together and he carefully kissed both her cheeks, hoping she couldn't feel him tremble.

When he pulled back, she was frowning. "Not like that, ve~! Like this!" She put her arms around his neck and tugged him down until their lips met.

Fireworks went off in Ludwig's head that would have put Yao's best work to shame. This time Italy kissed like Italy should—sweet and warm enough to curl his toes but not as rough and hungry as before. Without his permission his arms went around her, one trapping her waist and the other weaving through her long copper hair.

She pulled back and gave him a sunny smile, declaring, "I like kissing you, Ludwig!"

"Umm…" He tried to form coherent words from the mush that had replaced his brain. "Ja. You too."

She giggled, cupping his cheek and stroking his cheekbone with a thumb. "Maybe it's time we went to sleep, huh, Ludwig?"

He nodded mutely and allowed her to pull him back down to the bed, where she snuggled into his side.

"_Buona notte,_ Ludwig," she sighed, and promptly dropped off to sleep.

"_Guten nacht, liebling_," he said softly, even though she couldn't hear him. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the gods for their love of irony. All that worrying, and he hadn't even needed a week after all.

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><p><strong>AN: I totally rewrote this chapter like...three times. I couldn't get Ludwig to be awkward enough! But I think this one captures his adorable romantic awkwardness :3 At least I hope so! Please leave me a review and tell me if I did it right! We're still short of my goal of 120 reviews. But since the fic is looking to be a little longer than I thought it would be, I'm going to raise the number to 150! You can do it, guys! I believe in your critiquing abilities. :D<strong>


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: YOU GUYS ARE SO AMAZING :'D I got over 20 reviews on the last chapter alone, the most of any other chapter! You guys have no idea how happy that made me. Keep up the good work and you'll all get waffles# :D One of my readers (kittycatsunshine1214) gave me a virtual waffle and I wanted to share the love.**

**This chapter's long, but I figured you guys would forgive me because...the world meeting's finally starting! :D**

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><p>Britt hadn't felt this apprehensive since she'd finally been forced to acknowledge Germany's threat to the world in World War II.<p>

The night before, she was unable to sleep. Between the storm and her unsettled mind, she was up and unable to fall back asleep by six, even though the meeting started at eleven and she could have easily slept in.

To kill some time, she took a long, hot bath. She even shaved and everything. For some reason, maybe since now there was an end in sight, all the girl things she had to do didn't seem so bad. Shaving wasn't a pain—especially since she didn't have a repeat of the cutting incident—and she didn't mind shampooing her hair like she usually did. She idled in the bathwater until it had grown cold and her fingers and toes were wrinkly.

When she finally got out of the bath, she dressed slowly, taking forever to decide what to wear. She finally settled on a white button-down shirt and a green skirt that went to her knees. Professional enough for people to take her seriously in. Girly enough that people wouldn't think she was trying too hard to be a man when she wasn't. Plain enough that people wouldn't think she was trying too hard to be a girl when she wasn't.

Also. The skirt was long enough that France or Prussia couldn't get their hand up it without her noticing. Very important.

Then she brushed her hair, tugging the brush viciously through the tangles. She really had no mercy for her own head. After wrestling with the rubber band for a while, she managed to get her long golden locks up into a ponytail, and then she put on her combat boots and went to the parlor to await breakfast.

To her surprise, Ludwig wasn't there yet. Usually he was the first awake. No matter how early Britt arose, he always managed to beat her there, sipping black coffee and reading the morning's news while he waited for everyone else to get up.

Britain took down a book from the shelf of leisure reading she kept in the room and read while she waited for Feli to come make breakfast. It occurred to her that she was being lazy, but then she recalled how her offers to make meals were usually met. Nobody wanted her to cook when there was a gourmet chef like Feli around.

Soon enough Ludwig joined her in the parlor, and, to her surprise, Feli was trailing at his heels, still dressed in her lace-edged pink nightgown and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Good morning," she yawned. "How did you sleep, ve~?"

"Not well," Britt said honestly. "The storm kept me up. What about you?"

"I slept good! When I sleep with Ludwig I never have nightmares," she said cheerfully.

Britt's mouth fell open as she turned to stare at Ludwig. The German was an alarming shade of red. "It's not like zat!" he protested, stuttering. "She just vanted somebody to sleep viz her, because of ze storm, and she came in my room, and… I tried to tell her to leave!"

"But then I was crying and Ludwig didn't make me go!" Feli grinned happily. "And guess what?" she said, skipping over to the couch to sit by Britt and whisper in her ear. "Me and Ludwig kissed!"

It didn't seem possible, but somehow Ludwig darkened even more. "Italy!" he cried, scandalized by how easily she'd shared that private information.

Britt stared at her dumbly. "You kissed?"

"Ve~!"

"Yo, Ludwig!" cried Alfred from the doorway. "Nice, man! Way to get a move on." He clapped Germany on the shoulder. Then he whispered something that sounded suspiciously like, "You know this doesn't change our agreement! You still have to back me up!"

Italy giggled and skipped back over to Ludwig's side, taking his big hand in her two small ones. "Imma go make breakfast, ve~! You wanna come, Ludwig?"

"Erm, ja, I suppose." He followed Feli as she tugged him to the kitchen, still blushing furiously.

Alfred collapsed gracelessly onto the armchair, throwing one leg over the arm of it and lounging there like sitting up straight was just too much work. "So, Feli and Ludwig, huh?"

"Oh, come on." Britt rolled her eyes. "You'd have to be daft not to have seen that one coming."

Alfred grinned. "Yeah, it's kind of obvious, huh? But I just thought Ludwig was too awkward to make a move on her!"

"Knowing him, it was probably an accident."

After a moment of disbelief that those words had really come out of her mouth, Alfred burst out laughing, and Britt couldn't help but snicker a little too, even though it had been really rude. It probably _had_ been an accident. Ludwig was just too shy when it came to romance.

But Britt believed in fate. If the universe, or God, or whatever, had destined Feliciana Vargas and Ludwig Beilshmidt for one another, there was no fighting it, awkwardness or not.

When their laughter died, a thought occurred to Britt. "Do you think… Do you think she'll choose to remain a woman for him?"

"Yeah. I do." Alfred shrugged, tugging on his superhero sweatshirt to straighten it. "She was girly enough anyway—it's not like this is too much different. And can you really see Ludwig as gay?"

She tried to picture that, and couldn't. "No," she admitted.

"He'd probably still have a thing for her if she was a guy, but just couldn't do anything about it, but now he can. And I doubt Feli's going to want to go back to the friend zone now that she's finally out of it."

"Yeah. Nothing like a gender swap to get a romance going," Britt muttered.

"You can say that again." His blue gaze was making butterfly wings tickle her insides again. Somehow she sensed that they weren't really talking about Feli and Ludwig anymore.

She cleared her throat. "Well, I'm starving! Let's go fetch some breakfast, shall we?"

Not at all phased that Britt had ignored his remark, Alfred swung his leg to the floor. "Let's do it!"

Breakfast was waffles. Not very Italian, but still delicious. Feli seemed to have a magical touch in the kitchen—anything she made turned out ten times tastier than if Britt made it. Well, at least in everyone else's opinion; Britt's food tasted fine to her.

"I'm so excited to see _Fratello_ and Japan again!" gushed Feli as she poured syrup over her waffles. "Even if _Fratello's_ mad at me for being a girl, I've missed him, ve~!"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Ludwig sighed helplessly. Britt rolled her eyes too. Feliciana seemed to have a knack for loving the most unlikely people the most, like her violent brother and stoic Ludwig.

Breakfast was quick; Alfred and Feliciana were still in their pajamas and had to get ready for the meeting. When everyone was dressed and ready, the four nations piled into Britt's car and drove to the heliport, where Britt's personal private helicopter was waiting to bear them to this month's meeting place—Spain.

Ludwig drove to the heliport. Britt wasn't in the mood to drive, and they might as well have all signed their names in Death's waiting list as let Feli drive. America was willing, but he was incapable of remembering what side of the road the rest of the world drove on. Really. It seemed like he was just stubbornly insistent on _not_ conforming to the rest of the world's norms, like driving on the left side of the road and using the metric system and calling soccer football.

When they boarded the helicopter, Ludwig grasped Feli by the waist and set her easily inside, making her giggle. When Alfred tried to do the same for Britt she slapped him and climbed in herself, not even caring if he saw up her skirt while she did so. She'd rather him see than accept any help from him. The red imprint of her hand on his cheek was extremely gratifying.

On the ride there, Ludwig and Feli held hands, but Ludwig spent the entire ride staring out the windows with a blush suffusing his cheeks as if his refusal to look at their intertwined hands would make them invisible to everyone else.

Feli didn't seem to mind that Ludwig wasn't acknowledging her. She chattered away over the roar of the propellers and gestured animatedly as she talked (as always), simply including Ludwig's hand in her illustrations so she wouldn't have to let go of it. It looked pretty silly—Feli waving Ludwig's hand around all over the place, his blush growing as he stubbornly refused to notice, no matter what she did.

Britt tried to carry on a normal conversation, but she was too torn between wanting to laugh at the scene before her and wanting to vomit from the sheer terror she was feeling now. Every mile of ocean eaten up by the propeller blades brought her closer to humiliation, condemnation, exclusion, and molestation. She wasn't sure which she feared the most—France's attacks or having to bear the looks in her fellow countries' eyes. It wasn't hard to imagine what she'd see. Amusement. Shock. Distaste. And worst of all, _patronization_. That would be the one she'd hate to see most of all. Alfred's laughter, she had already borne; Ludwig's shock had been dealt with too. Distaste wouldn't be hard to handle, and would probably be the rarest anyway. But she simply couldn't stand it if she looked into the eyes of her fellow nations and saw that they were simply humoring her, indulging her little fantasies of commanding their respect like she used to.

When the greenness of the Iberian Peninsula began to crest over the waves, Britt drew a deep breath and steeled her nerves. She had to do this, even if no one took her seriously. She was The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland! Once upon a time she'd been an empire upon which the sun never set, and she was still one of the most powerful nations in the world. She'd made her mark on every continent, every people—she'd changed the very course of history! She could go to a meeting and bow her neck a little if she had to accept the other countries' disdain. Although accepting any sort of criticism was her absolute least favorite thing to do, it had to be done. For her nation.

Alfred's gloved hand wrapped around hers. "Don't worry, your hero's got your back," he assured her, grinning at her like he was making her day.

"What makes you think I need your help?" she snapped, pulling her hand out of his grasp. He was ruining her self-pep-talk here!

With a smirk he shook his head, craning his neck to look out the window at the approaching landmass. "No reason, maybe because Francis is probably going to try to rape you?"

"Well…" she trailed off, having no logical comeback for that.

America snickered at her. She wanted to strangle him, but restrained herself, reminding herself that he had to be breathing for the meeting in just an hour or so.

They arrived fairly early, but there was already a number of people gathered. Every type of vehicle imaginable was dropping off nations in front of Antonio's house—taxis, limos, helicopters, even a tank or two. Several nations clutched used train or plane tickets as they exited their taxis.

Antonio was waiting at the door to greet his guests. Every nation was required to have a meeting room in their home, so that each could take their rightful turn hosting the monthly world meeting. Britain thanked her lucky stars that it hadn't been her turn or Italy's this month. That just would have been a nightmare, coupled with everything else that had been on her mind recently.

Despite all her brave talk on the copter, Britt found herself shrinking slightly into Alfred's side to avoid notice. When she realized she was doing it, she shook herself angrily and stepped away from him, doing her best to assume a confident stride as she followed Ludwig, Alfred, and Feli over to Antonio.

"¡_Hola, bienvenidos a Espa__ñ__a_!" said the Spaniard cheerfully, grabbing Ludwig's hand and pumping it up and down energetically before doing the same to Alfred, Feliciana, and Britt. "Welcome to my home. There are staff members posted to show you the way to the meeting room…" He trailed off, frowning at Britt, halfway through the handshake. Then he looked back at Feli. "Hang on a minute… Italy? Britain? ¡_Dios mio, amigos_—er, _amigas_! What happened to you two?"

"Spell backfired," Britt said shortly. "Rest assured, it'll be reversed in time for the next meeting."

"Oh." Antonio's earnest green eyes were as wide as tomatoes as he looked the two girls up and down shamelessly. For the first time since her change, Britt felt the urge to fold her arms over her breasts. How dare he ogle her like that? It didn't occur to her that she wouldn't have been so scandalized had it been her, when she was a man, ogling a girl. She'd done that more times than she realized as a guy, and been slapped for it once or twice. Now she understood how indignant those girls had been.

Ludwig cleared his throat loudly and rested his hands on Feli's shoulders protectively, using them to steer her towards the door. She was still grinning emptily, not realizing the reason for Antonio's more-thorough-than-necessary scan. "Ve'll be going now. Zank you for your hospitality."

"Um, anytime, _amigo_," Spain said, still slightly in shock as the ex-male nations and their companions headed inside and he turned to the next guest. "Um, _bienvenidos a_…"

"The nerve!" fumed Britt. "Staring at me like I was some tavern wench!" No one bothered to remind her that taverns hadn't had wenches for quite a while now—it didn't seem like she was in the mood to be corrected.

"Big Brother Spain was just surprised, that's all, ve~!" said Feli brightly.

Massaging his temples, Ludwig muttered, "I svear, you must have pasta for brains."

"Ve~? What didja say, Ludwig?" asked Feli, turning to him with a grin.

At the sight of her goofy smile, his normally stoic face softened. "Nozing, _liebling_."

Feli giggled and bounced up on her tiptoes to brush a kiss across Ludwig's cheek. "_Ti amo_, ve~!"

"VHOA! HOLD ZE PHONE!" came a loud voice from down the hall. Ludwig's face blanched and his hands fluttered at his sides, as if unsure if he should grab Feli and run or just face the terror that was coming.

A tall albino was storming down the hall towards their little quartet, gracelessly tossing anyone who got in his way out of his path. Hungary brandished her frying pan at him threateningly when he chucked Austria aside by the tails of his purple coat, but the ex-nation hardly noticed.

"Prussia," groaned Ludwig. "How good to see you, _bruder_."

"Are you kidding me?" Gilbert towered over Feli, scrutinizing her. "You friggin turned Italy into a _chick_?"

Germany blushed furiously. "_I _didn't do it!"

"I did," Britt said, stepping in between a terrified Feliciana and Gilbert. "It was an accident, but we both got turned into girls."

Crimson eyes widened with shock. "England?" Britt nodded curtly.

After a moment of gaping like a landed fish at them, Gilbert exploded into laughter, clutching his stomach and hunching over with mirth. "_Gott_, zis is hilarious!" he cackled. "Vest! You should've told me ze girl you vere talking about vas _Italy_! Not like ze awesome me hadn't seen zis coming, I mean, not ze girl zing, but zat you'd end up togezzer—but zis is still frigging hilarious!"

Ludwig's eyebrow twitched and a vein stood out on his forehead, just under his perfectly slicked-back hairline. "Shut up, East, you're making a scene," he hissed.

After a few more chuckles, Prussia managed to get himself together and stand up. "So you're not togezzer, zen?" he asked, still sniggering a little.

Ludwig looked at his combat boots as if they were suddenly the most interesting thing he'd ever seen and flushed pink.

Feli was obviously still a little shaken by Gilbert's outburst, because for once she had nothing to say. She just stared askance at the ex-nation from where she was hiding behind Ludwig's arm.

"Vell, in zat case!" Prussia stepped closer, a crooked grin spreading across his face. "Vould you like to come visit my house later? I'm sure ve'd have an awesome time," he said suggestively, sneaking a hand towards her bottom. When she felt him touch her much too close to her vital regions for comfort, Feli squeaked and jumped a foot in the air, almost landing in Ludwig's arms.

Britt hadn't been aware how much taller Ludwig was than Gilbert until she saw the younger brother towering over the elder, murder in his eyes. Feli cowered against his side, staring at Gilbert with a wounded, frightened look. "Try zat again and I'll snap your neck," Germany threatened dangerously. There was absolutely no trace of a joke in his tone.

"Jeez, lighten up, Vest! It's not like you're dating her," Gilbert said, smirking ironically.

Britt rolled her eyes. _I guess Gilbert cares after all_. Although molesting Italy to get a love confession out of Ludwig _was_ taking things a little far. It would take years of therapy for poor innocent little Feli to fully recover from this.

"Shut your mouth," Ludwig snapped. Then he lowered his voice to a growl, drawing Feliciana closer to his side. "You know I am so don't make me have to say it here!"

Gilbert grinned widely. "As long as ve both know who vas right, little _bruder_! And zat's ze awesome me!" He winked at Feli. "Take good care of him, okay? He's a handful."

After a moment of hesitation, Feli smiled timidly and took Ludwig's hand. Though her smile was meek, her words were sincere. "I don't mind, ve~! Germany always takes care of me, so I'll take care of him too!"

The vein in Ludwig's forehead pulsed. "I'm right here, you know."

"Hey look, it's Francis!" cried Prussia, waving at the door. The Frenchman was just entering, dressed in his ridiculous purple cape as usual. The nation turned towards them when he heard his name being called. "Hey Francis! Over here! Zere's somezing awesome you gotta see!"

Britt swore and took off running through the crowd of countries in a heartbeat, pushing and squeezing through the mob in desperation to escape. She heard Alfred cry out for her to wait for her hero, but she didn't slow her frenzied pace until she'd reached Antonio's courtyard.

Many Spanish houses, especially the older ones, were built around a central courtyard where a garden or a sitting area might be. Britt had always been fond of the style—she had a liking for green, untamed places, and being able to have one practically inside your home was ingenious. Whenever Spain happened to host the world meeting, she always found time to come out here and admire the garden.

The courtyard was ringed by shady trees, with gravel pathways lined with flowers like little sentinels. She made herself chuckle humorlessly by imagining the caps of Buckingham Palace guards on a few brilliant red flowers as she raced down the path. But she couldn't really laugh; she was too busy hoping no one would have been able to keep up with her.

The lush green shade trees provided a perfect hiding spot in the corner. The spot was farthest away from any door and next to a bush that she could nestle into until it was time for the meeting. Britt slid her small body into the slot between the bush and the wall and waited, careful not to get grass stains on her white shirt.

The cool verdant garden calmed her frazzled nerves quickly. She could have been content to sit there for hours, admiring the flowers and the fresh breeze blown in from the seas surrounding Spain. But soon enough her time ticked away and she stood, dusting off her skirt, to go join her fellow nations in the meeting room.

She looked around carefully as she made her way into the open, as wary as a doe searching for wolves in the hedges. Just to be sure, she turned around to make sure no one had been waiting for her outside of her hiding place, tiptoeing backwards towards the door.

A strong pair of arms trapped her from behind, crushing her to a lean, warm, muscular body. "_Bonjour_! I was wondering when you would come out of zat leafy little 'ole, _mon ami_! Or should I say, _ma chere_?"

Britt's breath stopped. "Francis!" she gasped.

"Yes, it is me!" He chuckled. "Why were you 'iding, dear Britain? Such loveliness should not be 'idden. It is selfish and wasteful! I should know, I 'ave been living with ze curse of breathtaking good looks all my life! You, on ze ozzer hand… You were not always as radiant as you are now, _mon cher_, but now you outshine ze very stars."

Britt wanted to die when she realized that she was feeling…flattered. _STUPID GIRL HORMONES!_ "Let me go, you creepy frog!" she cried, struggling against his grip. But it was no use; he was too strong for her.

"Ah, I see! Feisty, are we? I like it." His breath tickled her ear.

She felt his fingertips touch the waistband of her skirt, sliding inside. Panicking, she said, "Come now, Francis, there's no time for you to do that now! We're going to miss the meeting!" trying to appeal to what little reason he had lurking in his head under those golden locks. It really was a miracle that scrap of common sense hadn't died of loneliness yet.

"Zey 'ave meetings every month," he said dismissively. "It's not every day we get ze chance to be togezzer like zis, my lovely _Angleterre_!"

Well, there went the reasonable approach. She switched to fury. "_We_? Do you think I'm enjoying this, you foul-smelling twit?" She struggled against him, trying to dislodge his searching hands. They were getting a little too brave for her taste. "Let me go!"

"Onhonhonhon~" Francis chuckled, drawing her even closer and pressing his lips to the bend between her neck and shoulder.

"I'll scream!" she threatened desperately, twisting and kicking and throwing elbows in an attempt to escape.

"Well, I'd 'ope so! I _am_ ze country of love," he snickered. "If I couldn't make a woman scream, zen 'ow could I call myself a man?"

Britt was just gathering the breath to scream for help when Francis made a noise of surprise and his grip loosened. Then he was gone entirely, and she heard something make a _thud_ against a brick wall.

She fell to her knees in the grass, gasping with relief. Then she looked up to see what she owed her salvation to, and her eyes widened.

It was Alfred. He was holding Francis up against the wall by the collar with one hand—the Frenchman's feet dangled a good foot off the ground.

"Hey, Francy-pants," America said nonchalantly. "Whatcha doing?"

"Nozing zat's any of your business," the Frenchman sniffed, tossing his waves of gold hair. "In fact—"

He cut off with a gurgling noise as Alfred's fist, holding his collar, pressed into his throat. "I think it's my business," he said. For the first time Britt could remember, Alfred actually looked…_dangerous_. Even in that idiotic bomber jacket. "See, I'm the hero, and it's a hero's job to save damsels in distress. So when you make a girl upset, especially _that_ girl," he pointed at Britt with a thumb, "it becomes my problem."

Disgusted, America dropped Francis. "Get to the meeting," he ordered. "And don't you _dare_ let me hear about you touching her again."

Even on the ground, Francis was arrogant. "What if she asks me to? What then, _Monsieur H__éros_?"

"If she asks, which she won't, I'll let you walk away with all your limbs," Alfred conceded. "But if she doesn't…" There was no need to finish that sentence. His tone said it all. "Now go. We're going to be late thanks to you."

Francis sniffed and got up, dusting himself off regally. "Until next time, _ma chere_," he said with a wink for Britt before he vanished inside.

Alfred helped Britt to her feet. "You okay? Sorry I wasn't here sooner, but you lost me pretty good in that crowd."

She stared at him. "I can't believe you spent all that time looking for me."

"Well, duh! I promised to be your hero, didn't I?" He smiled widely, his blue eyes lighting up behind his glasses.

_Idiot!_ She looked away. She couldn't bear the look in his eyes. It was just too… Too much. How could he still look at her with so much emotion when she kept trying to push him away? Couldn't he take a hint?

Apparently not. His gloved fingers slid through hers and his eyes searched the floor for the words he wanted to say. "Britt, I just wanted to say… What I mean is, I'll keep you safe. Because whenever you cry it hurts me too. And I don't want you to have to hurt ever again because I love you." He raised his crystal-blue eyes to hers as if daring her to question his words. She couldn't. Alfred never said anything that he didn't mean.

A chill ran through her, beginning at the crown of her head and going all the way down to her toes. _He said it. He really said it._

She jerked her fingers out of his. "No. No, this isn't right."

"Why not?" he asked. "People fall in love all the time, Britt. Ludwig and Feli did. I did. Nobody said it had to make sense," he added with a smirk.

"No!" she shouted. "I'm going to be a man again, you hear? You don't love me, it's just that I'm a girl now! Once I'm a man again, you won't care anymore!" _Why does it hurt to say that? Darn him!_

"Yeah I will." His eyes were hypnotic again. "Maybe it took seeing you as a girl for me to realize it, but I love you whether you're Britt or Iggy. They're both you, and I love _you_, not the body you're in."

"Stop saying that!" Like a child, she covered her ears, unable to bear hearing the words.

"Well I'm not gonna keep it to myself forever!" he shouted back. "I'm not going to end up like that crazy commie Russia because I could never grow some balls and tell you the truth! And I'm not going to say anything I'm afraid to own up to once I said it!"

"Well I liked you better as a child! And a coward!" Britt's eyes burned with angry tears as she ran towards the door, jerking it open with fumbling hands. The fact that she was crying only made her angrier.

Alfred's laughter followed her as she raced inside, towards the meeting room. His words tormented her the whole way. "Man, there's just no pleasing you, is there? I finally learn to follow something through to the end and you give me grief about it. Jeez, woman, what do you want from me?"

_That's the question, isn't it?_ she thought darkly as she ran, tears that she refused to let fall stinging her eyes. _What DO I want from him? And more importantly, what DON'T I want? Because suddenly… I'm not sure._ And that, the indecision, was the most terrifying part.

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><p><strong>AN: x3 Am I bad person because I had that much fun writing this scene? France was awfully pervy... But ALFRED CONFESSED HIS LOVE! :D And was overprotective! I love overprotectiveness (see my GerIta obsession).<strong>

**Speaking of my GerIta obsession, a random GerIta oneshot is now up... It's just angsty fluff but I had fun with it! Be sure to check it out, and also my PruCan/Franada fic, _First Kiss Wins_.**

**REVIEW OR FRANCE WILL SIEZE YOUR VITAL REGIONS. OR HE NEVER WILL. WHICHEVER IS MORE OF A THREAT. And you'll get waffles too :{D ######**


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: So this chapter's a little earlier than usual because one of my dear readers, animefrek, wanted me to update soon so she could have something to do while her leg is broken. I'm sorry I couldn't get it up any sooner, but you know! School and all that . Anyway, here it is! I had lots of fun with Canada and Sealand and France and Hungary and Japan and China (and, well...everyone :P), so I hope you do too!**

**WE HAVE OFFICIALLY REACHED MY GOAL OF 150 REVIEWS! YOU PEOPLE ARE AMAZING! :D *hands out waffles and virtual pasta* But don't think this is an excuse to not review, I still want to hear from you guys!**

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><p>When Britt opened the doors to the meeting room everyone fell silent. Their mouths gaped as they froze halfway through a word. Their hand gestures were arrested in midair.<p>

Finally someone spoke. "_Aiyah_!" cried China, staring at Britain with eyes wider than teacups. "England, what happened, aru?"

Confused, Britt scanned the room for Italy. She was sitting at her glowering brother's side, looking meeker than Britt had ever seen her. Apparently Lovino had given her a stern talking-to about daring to switch her gender accidentally.

"Didn't Italy tell you?" she asked, her brow wrinkling in confusion.

"Italy?" several countries exclaimed at once. Everyone turned towards Feliciana.

She waved at them, looking a little happier now that someone was looking at her without glaring. "_Ciao_, everybody! I'm a girl too, ve~!"

"I zought zat she'd just started cross-dressing again," said Austria with surprise. "So you're both actually vomen?"

"Zey certainly are! I can vouch for zat," France said from his seat next to his daughter, Seychelles, leering at Britt creepily. She glared daggers at him.

"Shut up, frog!" she ordered crossly. Then she addressed the rest of the room with a sigh. "Yes, we're women. It was an accident, and I have been prevented from reversing it up until this point, but I should be able to transmute us back within a week or two. It's nothing to cause an uproar over, so let's just have a regular meeting. Is that alright with everyone?"

For a minute everyone was silent, still staring at them. Then Japan cleared his throat. Germany and Italy's ally was normally very reserved and rarely spoke at world meetings, so his interjection was somewhat of a shock. "Actuarry, I have a question. How exactry did this happen? You said it was an accident, but I'm afraid I don't compretery understand."

Ludwig stood up. "Vith all due respect, Japan, zis meeting isn't about how Britain and Italy are vomen. If you vant to know how it happened, you should contact zem after ze meeting. For now we must focus and get _somezing_ done. Ve're already behind."

"Oh, c'mon, Vest, don't be such a stick in ze mud," Gilbert complained. "Everyone's curious. She might as vell get it out of ze way now and not have to deal with the vhole vorld beating down her door later."

"As strange as it is to say, Prussia has a valid point. I'll make it quick, Germany," England promised. "Right, then, here goes. Italy and Germany were at my place playing football and I was doing a few experiments in my house. Then Italy kicked the football through the window and disrupted my spell, which caused it to converge on her and mutate into a gender transmutation spell. When I was trying to reverse it, America interrupted, and my spell backfired on me, causing me to turn into a girl as well."

Spain grinned. "Hey, Britain, can you teach me that spell?" he called across the table, glancing at Romano.

Lovino's face turned tomato-red. "Don't even THINK about it!" he roared, cursing at him loudly. "If I ever even HEAR about that again I'm going to steal your axe and use it to chop you to pieces, you hear me?"

"Aww, you're so cute, _mi tomate_!" Antonio chuckled dotingly.

"You'd better watch yourself or I'll stab you in your sleep!" Lovino cried furiously. At his side, Feliciana was waving a little white flag at him.

"I for one zink zat Toni 'as a very good point!" cried Francis, rising and gesturing grandly to his fellow nations assembled in the meeting room. "Just look at us. Almost all males! I zink it is a 'igh crime zat such a gender disparity exists among us countries! Zis is ze twenty-first century—we should not be so quick to blindly follow in ze tired old ways of male dominance! I zink zat we should 'ave some countries turned into _mademoiselles_ to even out zese 'orribly unfair numbers of men versus women!"

"I second that!" cried Gilbert quickly, echoed by Antonio.

"Oh, put a sock in it, Francy-pants," cried Alfred from the doorway, glaring at the caped country. "We all know you just want more girls to molest."

Francis looked affronted. "Do not insult me, _Am__é__rique_! I was simply pointing out ze terrible injustice to the ladies of ze world in 'aving so little representation among ze nations!"

"Like heck you were!" shouted Hungary, furiously whipping out her frying pan. At her side, Austria shrank from her terrifying aura of rage. "Pervert!"

The meeting dissolved into chaos. Lovino and Antonio were arguing across the table—well, mostly Lovino screamed curses at Antonio while he laughed and continued to act like a mixture of doting parent and moony-eyed teenager. Hungary, Seychelles, and almost every other female nation were yelling at or threatening France and Prussia, leaving Romano to handle Spain. Japan was sensing the mood and refraining from speaking (a hobby he would probably now enjoy even more since it was his careless question that started this whole fiasco), China was arguing loudly with Taiwan, the Koreas, and a blank-faced Hong Kong, and Greece was somehow sleeping through the whole thing.

Britt gaped at the bedlam, unable to believe her simple story had caused all this. The countries hardly got along, but this was just childishness!

"SILENCE!" roared Germany, trying to reinstall order, as he usually had to do at some point in the meeting. Usually it was at least an hour in. This was record time. "IT'S ALREADY BEEN HALF AN HOUR AND VE'VE ACCOMPLISHED NOZING! CAN'T YOU SIT DOWN AND ACT LIKE MATURE ADULTS FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIVES? MOST OF YOU SHOULD HAVE STOPPED BEHAVING LIKE ZIS CENTURIES AGO!"

But, this time, even Germany's terrifying Furher-voice-scolding wasn't enough to shut everyone up. They just went on bickering. Britt was appalled by how everyone was acting. _Is this what I'm usually like at these meetings when I'm trying to kill that molesting frog?_ Then she wondered why she felt no need to join in on the fighting. Usually she would have been the first to rise to the occasion. _Huh. I guess being a girl is good for SOMETHING, at least._

The few countries who weren't taking part in the general mayhem—namely England, Italy, America, Japan, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and Greece (although he hardly counted since he was sleeping)—waited for the craziness to die down, but it never did. Instead, the arguing managed to go on for the full rest of the two hours allotted to the meeting. After half an hour of trying to get everyone to sit down and pay attention, Ludwig just gave up and came over to sit with Feli, Britt, and Alfred.

Feli patted his arm. "It's okay, Ludwig, it's not your fault, ve~!"

"It's _not_ my fault, but zey should still be able to act like adults! Some of them are older zan agriculture for crying out loud!" growled Ludwig, blue laser eyes glaring at the hollering, chair-throwing, France-beating, frying pan- and wok-wielding insanity. "Zis is just ridiculous!"

"I agree completely…" Britt leaned back against her chair. She could feel Alfred's eyes on her but she ignored him. At least he wasn't participating in the worldwide brawl that seemed to be going on, which was unexpected but nice. Then again, he usually only _caused_ arguments accidentally instead of jumping into the middle of ones already going on.

"Ve~," Italy agreed, fiddling with her white flag. "Everybody just needs to have some pasta and everything will be all better!"

"I vish it vere zat easy," said Ludwig. He didn't exactly take her hand, but he opened his own on his knee and she slid hers inside it obligingly.

"I think we should engineer a superhero to beat them all into behaving!" declared Alfred loudly. "I watched Captain America for like the twenty-second time yesterday and it could be totally legit! We just need to get some scientists and—"

"Oh, shut it," Britt snapped irritably. "They wouldn't stop fighting if they all had both their legs ripped off, so it's pointless anyway."

Alfred pouted. "I still want a superhero," he sulked in much the same way a child would complain about wanting a dog or a cat.

Britt rolled her eyes and crossed her legs. Then she noticed Alfred eyeing them—they were set on display by the way she sat—and uncrossed them with a flinty glare for him.

"Sorry," he said, but he didn't look like he meant it. "You shaved again, huh?"

"Yes," she said shortly. "This morning, not that my hygiene is any of your business."

He ignored that last part. "And you didn't cut yourself this time?"

"No."

"And I'm still not allowed to touch, right?" America looked hopeful that she might change her mind.

"Of course not, you prick!" snapped Britt. "I've been molested quite enough today!"

"At least I asked!" He grinned insolently, not at all ashamed or embarrassed that he'd asked to touch her legs in public. "Just let me know when you're ready."

"Never," she hissed.

Ludwig watched the exchange with something like revulsion, but Feli was practically nosebleeding. "Aww~," she cooed.

Britt glared at Feli. "Don't coo over him! It'll just encourage him!"

That infuriating crooked lazy smile was back. "Ah, you'll come around. I have all the time in the world, you know."

"Not if you die of congestive heart failure first," she muttered darkly. "Or the world ends. Because the day I say _I love you_ to you will be the day they ice-skate in Hell."

"Ice skating is fun," said a wounded, muted voice from nowhere.

Britt jumped. "Who said that?"

"I did. Canada." The voice was coming from America's side.

"Yo, how didn't you notice Mattie?" America demanded. "He's been here like the whole time!"

"Really? Are you just pulling my leg again?" After the words came out she winced at the poor choice. "Don't take that literally."

Alfred guffawed. "Naw, man! Just look! He's right here!" Alfred gestured dramatically to the chair next to him. Surprisingly, there was a polar bear just sitting there, watching everyone with wide eyes, but she assumed that this wasn't the brother Alfred was referring to.

She squinted at the space next to Alfred and managed to make out the outline of a man who looked exactly like Alfred, but with hair that was very like Francis' with a long spiraling curl springing from his hairline, right where America's unruly cowlick was. The polar bear was on his lap, enveloped in his arms.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, chap," she said, embarrassed that she hadn't noticed him.

"It's okay, I'm used to it by now," he said breathily, laughing slightly.

The bear on Matthew's lap looked up at him, puzzled. "Who are you?"

"I'm Canada, Mr. Kumajiro," Matthew said despairingly. "I've told you that three times already since we got here."

"Ohhh," the bear said. Britain was surprised the little fellow could forget the person who fed him, but Matthew _was_ a pretty unobtrusive sort of chap.

"Hahaha!" laughed a voice from the side, interrupting Canada's rare moment of recognition. He faded back into the background once more as everyone turned to see who had spoken.

Britt groaned. "Oh, _brilliant_. I swear, this is the only thing that could make this meeting any worse."

The only thing that could make this meeting any worse happened to be Britt's _real_ little brother, Peter Kirkland—AKA, Sealand.

"This is what you get, you British jerk of jerks!" crowed the little boy in his sailor suit, skipping over excitedly. "It's a sign, don't you see! Since you haven't recognized me as my own nation, some higher power has intervened and made you a girl as punishment!"

"The higher power was me, you dolt! _I_ turned myself into a girl, not some 'higher power,'" she snapped. "And besides, if this is my divine punishment, then why is Italy a girl too?"

That pulled Peter up short. "W-well…"

"I think you've been watching too much anime. I'm going to have to talk to Japan about this," Britt sighed.

"I don't need you watching out for me—I can take care of myself!" said Sealand defiantly. Scowling at each other, with their identical blonde hair and matching bushy eyebrows, they looked like mirror images of one another.

Alfred cracked up at that. "Stop it, guys, you're killing me! You look so funny!"

Sealand and Britt both drew themselves up, affronted, at the same time, which only made him laugh harder.

Finally Peter cried, "Whatever! I'm going back to sit with Sweden." With that he stomped off self-importantly, nose in the air.

Britt sighed. "Little brat."

They sat there watching the chaos until it was time to go. Then they got up with sighs and left the room while the rest of the world bickered on. And Greece slept right through it.

Alfred said a fond goodbye to his nearly transparent brother and Feli sniffled that she hadn't gotten a chance to say _arrivederci_ to Lovino, but they were all relieved to get away. Britt was just happy she'd managed to get through the whole two hours with her vital regions uninvaded. Well, it had been close. It was a good thing America had…

She crushed that before it became a full thought. _I could've handled it!_ She could almost convince herself it was true.

They were almost to the spot where the helicopter was waiting when they heard a cry from behind them. "Wait!"

They turned to see Francis striding confidently towards them.

"Start the copter _now_!" cried Britt to the driver, who was waiting inside. "Hurry!"

Unfortunately, Francis could be pretty fast when he wanted to be. Before they managed to get inside, he was there, making escape impossible.

Alfred's gloved hands tightened into fists. "What do you want, Francy-pants?"

"Just to say _adieu_ to my lovely _Angleterre_," he said smoothly. And then, before anyone could react, he bent down and kissed Britt full on the mouth.

"Ahh!" cried Britt as best she could while being smothered by his mouth. "Ger—mmf!"

Francis pulled away, smirking, only to get a gloved fist in the gut.

Alfred's punch sent Francis flying. The younger country glared furiously at the older, who gasped for air, winded by the punch. "I told you never to touch her! Do you have a death wish, or are you just stupid?" Alfred stormed towards Francis with ice chips for eyes.

"Wait, Alfred! Stop!" she managed to get out. She had no desire to witness a fight, even if it was on her behalf. And Francis probably wouldn't get through a fight with Alfred with all his teeth intact—and she doubted any of his lovers would find dentures very sexy.

Alfred stopped advancing on Francis and stared at her. "You're kidding right? He was just kissing you! After I _told_ him not to!"

"I know, but…" She trailed off. How to say that what had made her call that fight to a halt wasn't Francis getting hurt, but that she didn't want to watch Alfred hurt someone? That she was more afraid of being afraid of him than anything else? "Let's just go. Please?"

"Listen to 'er," Francis said desperately. "Zere's been enough fighting."

Alfred landed a punch squarely in Francis' mouth. "Shut up. Next time, I won't hold back—I'm going to do some damage that'll keep you from getting any action ever again, no matter what she says!" Francis looked more terrified by that threat than Britt could remember him ever looking before.

As he stormed over to the helicopter, Alfred scowled at France and England alike. Britt avoided his gaze, unable to look at him. Only when they'd taken off did he turn towards her and ask, "Why did you stop me? I should've beat the stuffing out of that lame excuse for a nation for doing that to you!"

The beginning of a lie was forming in the back of her mind. A lie that would probably hurt him very much. A tiny bit of guilt wormed its way into her chest, but she ignored it. "Francis is my friend, and I didn't want you to hurt him. Besides, when did I ever say that I _didn't_ like what he was doing to me?"

Alfred laughed, not buying it at all. "Stop busting my balls, Britt! Anybody could tell that you weren't exactly having a good time. You were struggling and screaming like a cat in the bathtub!"

Drawing on all her acting skills—which were considerable, since she'd spent a lot of time hanging out with Shakespeare when he was around—she glared at him. "Well of course I was! You know how Francis can't resist when they play hard-to-get. Especially girls."

A thoughtful look replaced laughter on Alfred's face. Francis did always rise to a challenge. "Yeah, but… But you threw that huge hissy fit when he tried to marry you! Remember? And then you were pouting about it for days!"

She thought quickly. "That was when I was a man. Things are…different now."

"Different how?" he snorted. "Aren't you always telling me how you're going to change back?"

"Well, before I do I might as well get the full female _experience_," she said, smirking so there was no doubt as to what she meant. "And who better to get it from than the country of love?"

His mouth fell open in disbelief. "But… You…" He snapped his jaw back to where it belonged. "I could give you that, you know," he said indignantly. "And with me it wouldn't just be a one-night stand. I can't believe you'd rather sleep with that scuzzbag than me! He's probably got every single STD known to man! And a few that haven't even been discovered yet!"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be daft," she sneered. "Countries can't get STDs. If they could, he'd be dead fifteen times over by now."

"That's what I'm saying!" He took one of her hands, staring into her eyes. The concern in his big blue eyes made her heart flutter, but she stubbornly ignored it and kept a smooth face. "Why would you want to sleep with someone you meant nothing to? Face it, he just wants you for a good time, and then he'll toss you aside! The man's never been in a lasting relationship in his life!"

"Oh, and you have?" she asked scornfully, tugging her hand out of his grip.

"Well…"

It was time for the big finish. "At least Francis is a man, not a little boy trying desperately to play grown-up!" Alfred flinched. "I couldn't ever see you like a man—to me, you'll always be the ungrateful little brat that you are."

Finally his temper made an appearance. "I'm not ungrateful! And I'm not a brat! I never stopped loving you, England, never!"

"Well you'd better stop now! I have better things to do than pat your head and stroke your ego and pull your bacon off the fire every time you get yourself into trouble for my whole life!"

"Who asked you to help? It's not my fault you can't stop mothering me! I'm independent now, in case you never noticed!"

"Oh, really?" she asked sarcastically. "Then what do you want from me? If you want your precious independence so bad, then what do you want me for!"

"Because I love you! I told you! But just because I love you doesn't mean I won't still put my nation first." He looked defiant now—just like that day she'd realized that she could never shoot him, no matter how deeply he hurt her.

All of the fire had drained out of her with that look. But it was too late to stop now—if she was going to drive him away, it was now or never. So she made herself look angry and yelled back, "Well that's not good enough!"

"Oh, like you'd let your nation take a backseat to the frog?"

"Maybe!"

"I can't believe that."

"Then maybe you don't know me like you think you do!" She tried to be as convincing as she could.

The azure fire in his eyes winked out. "Maybe I don't," he said quietly.

The hurt on his face was much more than she'd expected to see. Looking away from him, she noticed Ludwig and Feliciana. They were still sitting there with their hands intertwined, but for once that didn't make Ludwig look embarrassed. The two of them were frozen in shocked silence by the fight they'd just witnessed.

Britt stared at her combat boots, unable to bear the condemnation in all their faces.

The rest of the ride was spent in awkward silence. Even Feli knew better than to try and speak.

So Britt was left alone with her thoughts. Most of them revolved around the knot of pain in her belly that had appeared, unnoticed, during that fight. A lump in her throat prevented her from swallowing it away.

_Why does it always hurt so much to turn him away?_

She had no answer, and the only sound that they heard on the way home was the noise of helicopter blades slashing through the sky.

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><p><strong>AN: :'( Don't hate me! It hurt me just as much as it hurt America, I swear!<strong>

**In the immortal words of The Uk's Only, "England, Y U SO TSUNDERE?" I agree with you completely. She's so... GAH! *wants to slap England really bad for not recognizing the amazingness that is Alfred F. Jones***

**Anyway, there will be two more chapters after this, and then... It's over DX I can't believe how much support and love I've gotten from you guys, and I sincerely appreciate every single reader and reviewer. :) *in a sappy mood thanks to 150-review-induced happiness* Aww, okay, I'm done with my little moment now! Until next time~**


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: I loathe Britt for this chapter. She's. So. MEAN. And in denial Dx**

**Just my little disclaimer there. But I promise, it's good! Especially if you have an inner angst monster like me. He comes out at odd times and makes everything a little more interesting :P**

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><p>When they got home Alfred took over the parlor. Well, it wasn't like he was forcing everyone else out, but Britt just didn't want to see him.<p>

So she spent a good three hours holed up in her room. Finally, though, hunger drove her out in a search for something to eat.

As she passed the parlor to get to the kitchen, she heard voices inside. America and Germany. She was about to walk by when she heard her name spoken. Every spy instinct she possessed screamed at her to pause to listen to their conversation.

"Vhat Britt said earlier vas harsh… Are you okay?" asked Ludwig.

Alfred laughed in his "heroic" way. "Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, it hurt like crap at the time, but now I think she must've been acting."

Doubtfully, Ludwig asked, "Really? She seemed pretty serious to me."

"Totally. She hates Francy-pants. She'd rather throw herself off a bridge than do it with him. At least, I'm pretty sure."

"Ja… Zat does seem like the last zing she'd do… But she vas pretty convincing…"

"Yeah, she thinks acting is the bomb. Globe theater and all that." He paused. "At least, I hope that's what's up. She's always telling me I have a talent for self-delusion." A forced laugh filtered through the doorway.

Britt's ears burned. _I did tell him that, didn't I?_ It had been that time he'd told her that he'd beat her to cancelling his national debt, which was just a joke.

"Vell, you have a veek, at least."

"I'm starting to think that's gonna be too short." He sighed. "Oh well. As much as I'd prefer being straight, for Iggy I'll make an exception. Hey, maybe I can convince him to switch back one of these days! But if he doesn't, I won't mind."

"Calling her 'he' already… Have you given up?"

"Not by a long shot! But I think she's going to take a while to admit that she likes me back."

She glared at the floor. How dare he presume to know what she felt?

"Ja, it seems like she's just scrambling for excuses not to care for you now. I'm sure it vill vork out."

Alfred sighed. "Waiting is such a bummer…"

Britt backed away from the door slowly, then took off running down the hall.

There was only one thing to do.

She picked up the phone and dialed a number she wished with all her heart she didn't have to call.

o~O~o

"So what did you invite me 'ere for again, _Angleterre_?" asked Francis as she led him down the hall stealthily, drawing on all of her reconnaissance skills. Unfortunately, Francis didn't seem to be taking the hint.

"Shh!" she hissed. "There's a reason I had you call me and not ring the doorbell, you half-witted man-whore!"

"Onhonhonhon~" Francis chuckled, his pervert grin spreading across his face. "I see. Is zat why I'm here, _Angleterre_? Do you desire my…_services_?"

Britt turned crimson. "Shut it!"

Thankfully, he finally listened. He kept quiet as she snuck him down the hallway and into the parlor.

_Okay, calm down, think_, she ordered herself. _Alfred went to eat dinner with Feli and Ludwig, so he should be back in about five minutes or so… You just have to time this perfectly and there won't be any problems_.

Francis made himself comfortable on the couch, reclining on it and putting his boots up on the armrest like he owned the place. "So are you going to tell me now?"

"I'll get to that in just a minute," she said distractedly, peering down the hallway to see if Alfred was coming. He usually came to the parlor to play video games or watch movies after dinner. _If he decides to change his schedule tonight…_

Abruptly, she realized that she'd been in a room alone with Francis for a full minute and she hadn't been groped yet. She glanced at him in surprise.

"You're impressed at my self-control, no?" Francis asked with a smirk. "With someone as lovely as you, _Angleterre_, just looking is half the event."

She saw right through him. The lily-livered wuss was still afraid of Alfred beating him up.

_Alfred_. She went back to monitoring the hallway.

After a moment, she heard voices filtering down the hallway ahead of their owners. Alfred for sure—he was too loud to miss—and maybe Ludwig and Feli too.

_Oh, great_, she groaned. She hadn't been counting on so large an audience.

But Francis was already here, and this had to be done. Before she could lose her nerve, she ran over to the couch and jumped into Francis, straddling his lap.

His blue eyes widened. "_Quoi_…?"

"Just promise you'll stop when I say stop, okay?" And then she screwed her eyes shut and did something she thought she'd never do—she kissed Francis.

It took exactly one millisecond for France to get over his shock and start kissing her back. Passionately. His stubble was itchy on her cheeks. Britt wanted to throw up, but she forced herself to put her arms around him and wind her fingers through his hair.

"_Angleterre_…" he whispered, dislodging her mouth from his, but she didn't let him get away. She brought his lips back to hers, trying not to focus too much on what she was doing while still acting like she was really into the kiss.

That was the end of Francis' protesting. His strong arms held her close, slipping around her to envelop her with him.

It was horrifying.

The door opened and Britt heard several people gasp. She ignored them and, swallowing bile, slid a hand up Francis' shirt. _Be convincing… This is so disgusting! Eww… C'mon, you can do it! Stick it out for just a little longer!_

After a moment of feeling three horrified pairs of eyes on her, she heard a pair of combat boots take off down the hallway.

Gratefully rearing out of Francis' grasp, she saw Feli and Ludwig standing there in the doorway, an empty space between them where Alfred had been.

Ludwig looked shocked, but Feli just looked immensely sad. "Ve~… Britt, why would you kiss Big Brother France? You know Alfred loves you… And Big Brother France, why would you help Britt hurt Alfred?"

"I didn't know what she was up to until just now," he protested, wiping his lips and replacing his shirt to where it belonged. "Alzough I'm not going to pretend zat it wasn't an enjoyable surprise." He grinned enticingly at England.

Britt passed a hand across her eyes. "I just needed somebody to get him off my back… You seemed like a very eager candidate."

"Ahh," Francis said. "You're using me to drive _Am__é__rique_ away? Zat's not very sportsmanlike, Britain."

"I don't need your advice," she snapped. "Now get out of my house."

"What if you need more help convincing Alfred zat you 'ate 'im?" The way he lounged across her couch like he owned it was making her see red.

"You've done quite enough for one day, frog! And besides, I don't want him to think I hate him, I just want him to stop pursuing me!"

"Well, you're doing a lot more 'arm zan good in zat respect, _mon cher_. You're 'urting 'im more zan you realize."

"He's always telling me that he's a man now—he can take it," Britt snapped. "So quit lecturing me!"

Francis shook his head. "Two thousand years old and you still 'aven't learned… What a shame." He swung his legs to the floor and touched Britain's cheek. "Just zink about what you're doing, _mon cher_. You could be 'urting yourself more zan 'im." Then he grinned at her brazenly. "Just remember, if you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm just a boat ride away."

Sometimes the man had impeccable timing. He walked out of the room just as Britt was about to throw something at him.

Ludwig shook his head and followed Francis out. "Zat vas badly done," he admonished quietly before leaving.

Somehow, that remark coming from Ludwig, the least romantic country of all, made all of Britt's backbone leach out. She felt so tired, so old, as she sat down heavily on the chair.

Feli sat down beside her, on the arm of the chair, and petted her ponytail comfortingly. But for once, she didn't say anything.

_Did I really mess up that bad? So bad that Francis is telling me to hook up with someone else, Ludwig is giving me love advice, and Feli has nothing to say?_

After a moment, a question poured out of her mouth without getting her consent first. "What did his face look like? Alfred's. When I was kissing Francis."

Feli frowned dolefully. "He looked really shocked, and sad, and angry all at the same time. I thought he might punch Big Brother France again, or cry, ve~." Her signature Italian colloquialism sounded like a sigh of despair. "I think you hurt him real bad."

"I just don't want him to be in love with me," Britt moaned, covering her face with her hands. "I never wanted to make my little brother hurt like that… I didn't know he liked me so much…"

"He's not your little brother, ve~. He's been a big boy for a long time, and it's time you admitted it." Feli took on a lecturing tone. "I wantcha to say it, okay?"

"What? Admit that lunatic's all grown up now?"

"C'mon, it's not gonna hurt!"

"…Alright, fine! America's all grown up."

"And…?"

"And he's a man now, and he can take care of himself."

"Good job, ve~! So why won't you even think about liking him back?"

She thought about it. _Why am I so scared of him being in love with me?_

_Because he's a child_, half of her argued.

The other half argued back. _But he's not anymore. You just admitted it._

_Because he's my brother._

_He's been independent for over two hundred years now._

_Because he's a moron._

_Aren't you one too? Look at the mess you made._

Yes… A mess. She'd really made a right fine pickle out of this one.

_You're scared of him falling in love with you because you're afraid that you'll have to admit that you love him too_, something inside her whispered. The thought came from that deep part of her where she couldn't lie, couldn't cover up the truth—where everything was brutal honesty. The part of her that spoke nothing but the truth.

That thought spread all through her, from the roots of her hair to her fingertips, changing, rearranging, just like that spell that had started it all. "Where did he go?" she asked quietly.

"I think he was going to his room, ve~," Feli told her.

Without a word Britt stood and walked out of the parlor towards Alfred's room. Her house was so huge, so alien all of a sudden. Had she really never noticed how empty it felt without Alfred in it, getting underfoot and knocking priceless valuables over as he ran around like a wild animal? She'd always been too angry with him for leaving her to really feel his loss. But now she did. Because he really had never left, not until she'd forced him away. He'd never really hated her until now. Her own house felt unfriendly, hung heavily with Alfred's disappointment and hurt.

His door stood ajar. She stepped inside, calling softly, "Alfred?"

No answer. The lights were all out, but she could tell something was wrong. Then she realized—all his things were gone.

A cold chill ran through her. "America?" she called, louder this time.

Again, only silence greeted her.

_He left. He actually left._

No, he couldn't be gone yet. There was no way he could pack up and get all the way off her property so quickly. She could still catch him.

She ran as quickly as her legs would carry her to the garage. _Don't let me be too late_, she sent a desperate plea to all the powers of the universe. She didn't know why, but she felt like if she let him get away now, the break between them would be beyond healing. And suddenly, the thought of him hating her was just impossible to bear.

Alfred was tossing his duffel into the backseat of his convertible, his blue eyes a maelstrom of painful emotions. He looked up in surprise when garage door banged against the wall as Britt threw it open.

Instantly his expression became a mask of emotionlessness. "Don't worry, I'm gone," he said coolly. But he wasn't good at lying. His voice was raw with pain.

"Alfred, wait," she said. He ignored her and slid into the driver's seat of his car. "Alfred!" He shut the door and turned the key in the ignition. Britt's temper exploded. "ALFRED F. JONES, YOU WILL _LISTEN_ TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

That outburst surprised him enough to give him pause. He glanced at her, eyes still tight with pain and anger. "Sorry, I thought you were busy getting your _full female experience_," he said unkindly.

"Shows what you know!" she snapped. "I was about to be sick the whole time!"

"Coulda fooled me." He switched the car into reverse.

"Alfred, don't you dare leave!" She reached over him and commandeered the gear shift until his car was back in park, then snatched the keys out of the vehicle. "You're staying here!"

"No way!" He tried to get his keys back from her, but she backed away, trying to draw him out of the car. "I'm not staying here to watch you and France get all cozy! I don't _enjoy_ pain, you know!"

"I don't like France!"

With a frustrated sound, Alfred got out of the car and walked towards her, hand extended. "Britt. Give me the keys. I'm going home. Jeez, I thought you'd be _happy_! You've been wanting me out of your hair all week!"

She hid the keys behind her back and backed away from him. For each step he took, she took one backwards, drawing him away from the car. "Look, Alfred, you've got to listen to me. I have something important to say."

"Please, Britt." The look in his eyes made her heart clench painfully. _I really hurt him. I really, really hurt him this time_. "I just want to get out of here, okay? I don't want to be here. I screwed up pretty bad, I know. I pretty much set you in Francis' lap. So get back to him."

"_Never_! Ugh, don't even _say_ things like that!"

"Britt." He stared her down. "Just…don't bother. I don't want you to lie to me."

"It's not a lie! You have to believe me! I don't want the frog, I want…" She trailed off, trying to gather the courage to say what she had to say. "I want a hero, Alfred."

Complete silence and stillness settled over the garage. Alfred's stupid beautiful blue eyes were wide.

"Then what were you just making out with Francy-pants for?" he asked, taking a step towards her. When she took a step back, her back hit the wall.

"I snogged him because I wanted you to hate me enough to make me hate you." When Alfred just looked confused, she backtracked, "Er, what I meant to say was… I snogged him because I wanted you to hate me, so I wouldn't have to admit how I felt about you."

He moved closer. The unbelievable blueness behind his glasses was enough to swallow her up. She could have spent a small eternity drowning in them and been very happy indeed. "And how's that?" His fingers tilted her chin up.

"I…" _Darn him!_ Her eyes flickered away. "I…care about you. More than like a brother."

"So, like how I like you?"

"Sort of," she said sullenly.

When he chuckled her eyes went back to him. How dare he laugh at her? And when had he gotten so handsome? "You're something else, Brittany Kirkland," he said, crushing her to him and kissing her lips.

It was just like that imagined memory she'd replayed a billion times. His kiss was soft and leisurely, but demanding at the same time. It took her breath away, way more than Francis' kisses did, country of love or no. It didn't matter that he tasted like hamburgers and coke, or that the collar of his ridiculous bomber jacket felt coarse under her fingers as she used it to clutch herself to him—she loved him, and she wouldn't have traded this moment for anything in the world.

After what could have been a millisecond or a minute, Alfred broke their kiss, panting for breath. Britt was just as winded, and lightheaded too. If it hadn't been for the wall at her back and the support of her arms around Alfred's neck and his around her waist, she might have fallen.

"I knew you'd come around," he whispered, grinning, as he leaned his forehead against hers. "Girls can't resist heroes."

She glared as best she could with his breath scattering her thoughts and making her heart go into overdrive. "Don't flatter yourself, you stupid American."

He laughed. "How could I, with you calling me that every two seconds?"

"_Someone_ needs to keep your head from getting too big," she retorted. But when he brought his mouth to hers again, laughing, she willingly surrendered herself to his kiss, clutching him close as the twilight deepened over them.

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><p><strong>AN: One more chapter! Wow... It's almost over... But never fear! I can never let anything end completely, so there will probably be bonus chapters. If you have a request for what you want to see in a bonus chapter, leave a review and tell me. Heck, leave a review anyway! Alfred and Britt want you to.<strong>

**Alfred and Britt: *making out totally ignoring Escritoria***

**Me: ... I promise, they want you to!**


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: Well, here we are. The final chapter. It's short, but hopefully sweet! Remember that I'll be doing bonus chapters, so if you want to request anything please leave me a review and let me know.**

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><p>The circle was drawn. The symmetry, the careful alignment, the loving arrangement of the curves and angles were comforting to Britt. She loved drawing her circles now that she didn't spend all day every day drawing them, carving lines of magic through the planes of reality in a desperate attempt to find one that worked.<p>

But… Even as the circle was spread across the stone floor before her, she hesitated to activate it. Even though she was ready to do the transmutation, dressed in her men's clothes and all, she couldn't bring herself to start it.

Alfred's hand tightened on hers. "Whatever you want, Britt. I'll still date you even if your eyebrows get ginormous again, promise!"

For once she didn't even have the energy to glare, even though that comment had probably been specifically targeted to get a rise out of her. Alfred had some odd ways of trying to make her feel better. "Bug off," she grumbled.

He lifted their intertwined hands to kiss her knuckles. "Aww, don't be like that."

On the other side of the circle, Feli waited, wearing her baggy men's clothes just like Britt and an identical uncertain expression. Ludwig was behind her, trying to stifle the mournfulness on his face. Although they'd been a couple for a week now, it seemed that Ludwig had never managed to ask her to stay a girl for him.

_Does Italy know what will happen if she changes back?_ Britt wondered. _She must know that Ludwig won't know how to love her anymore. Well… She isn't all that smart, but surely she must realize he's more comfortable with her this way._

If she was brutally honest with herself, Britt was just as scared of that same thing. Alfred had fallen in love with her as a girl, and she had fallen for him in this form. What if being a man changed that between them? He always told her that he loved her, man or woman, but how true was that, really? How attracted would he be to a body so like his own? And she could no sooner vouch for her own feelings as his. She had no idea how being a man would change the dynamic between them, on her side or his.

And she was afraid of losing him. He'd…he'd become important to her. She had no idea how it had happened, but she'd fallen in love with that burger-stuffing Coke-guzzling git somewhere along the line.

But did she love him enough to stay a woman for him?

After a long moment of pregnant silence, Feli burst out, "I can't do it!"

"What?" asked Britt, a little startled by the sudden noise. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to be a boy again, ve~!" Feli said, close to hysterics. "I don't want to be a boy! I wanna stay with Ludwig!"

Ludwig's eyes widened. "Feli…"

She turned to him, scrubbing at her moist eyes with an overlong sleeve. "I don't want you to not love me," she sniffled. "Is it okay with you if I stay a girl? You'll keep loving me, right? Promise?"

Britt had never seen Ludwig make the first move. But that's exactly what he did now, drawing Feli into his arms and hugging her tight. "_Ich liebe dich_," he whispered into her hair. "Yes, Feli, I'll love you. I promise."

"Yay!" Bouncing up on her tiptoes, she kissed him sweetly. "_Ti amo_, ve~!" Then she turned to Britt. Behind her, Ludwig looked distinctly dazed. "I'm sorry, England, but I want to stay a girl so I can be with Ludwig forever and ever!"

Britt had to smile. "I understand, Feli. I know you'll be very happy with him."

"Me too, ve~!" The auburn-haired Italian girl rested her head on her Ludwig's chest happily as he held her.

Alfred swung their interlocked hands a little. "I guess it's just you, Britt… Or should I say Iggy?"

All the things she hated about being a girl flashed through her mind all at once. The mood swings, the shaving, the painted fingernails, the love of cuteness, the awkwardness of tasks that had once been routine, the dresses, the Francis attacks, the complicated wardrobe, the shortness, the top-heaviness, the hormones, the shock on everyone's face at seeing what she'd become.

For a moment she couldn't imagine wanting to stay like she was. It had been an accident, after all. And accidents were meant to be undone, whether by fixing the problem or atoning for it if it couldn't be fixed.

Suddenly an image swelled behind her eyes—Alfred. That moron. Who did he think he was, making her fall in love with him like that?

She swore. "I can't do it either."

Alfred looked at her. "What?"

"I'm staying a girl for you, you son of a tart," she grumbled grudgingly.

"For realz?" he gasped, eyes widening. "That's awesome!" He scooped her up and kissed her hard.

When he set her back down, her head was reeling, but she managed to glare at him. "You moron," she said, smacking his shoulder.

"I love you," he told her exuberantly, tugging the end of her ponytail fondly. "And I'm totally psyched that you're staying a girl!"

"I…" She sighed a little in annoyance that he was making her say it. "I love you too."

Feli beamed at them. "Looks like we're both girls now, ve~!"

Britt surreptitiously slipped an arm around Alfred's waist. "I suppose so."

Alfred kissed her neck playfully, and she grudgingly let him. Not because she enjoyed it. He was a force of nature, for goodness sakes. He couldn't keep his hands off her.

Feli giggled and grabbed Ludwig's hand. "Imma go change now! I guess I'd better get rid of all my boy clothes, huh?"

"I suppose I should too," Britt sighed. "Let's go, Alfred."

"Yeah! I'll be happy to help you get rid of your clothes anytime!" That earned him a none-too-gentle elbow in the gut that elicited a grunt of pain from him.

The four of them left then, shutting the door on the magical circle that could have made Britt and Feli men again. But fate had had other plans, apparently. What else could explain how their lives had been changed so drastically in such a short time? At first it had seemed a tragedy, but as it turned out, the accident that had been the cause of so much grief and distress had really been a blessing in disguise. In a strange way, it had brought them happiness, and love that they couldn't trade for anything, not even to be men again.

For better or for worse, they were girls to stay.

The End~

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><p><strong>AN: Thank you guys so much for sticking with me this long. I'm humbled by all your support and love-when I started this fic, I never guessed that I'd get over 200 reviews and over 100 people would add it to their favorites lists! You guys are incredible and I love each and every one of you. I hope you'll transfer some love onto my other fics too so we can stay together! :D You don't know how happy it's made me to see my email inbox filled up with all the notifications from your reviews, favorites, and alerts. Thank you for that, and for everything.<strong>

**With much fellow fangirl love,**

**Escritoria**


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